I'm sure you all love IDing these guys

gingerfish

New Member
I have 2 new friends to ID. The larger one I have already removed from my tank (he is living in another "facility" for now), but the little guy I put back in his rock because he's just so tiny.
Anyone know what these critters are? (I apologize if the photos are huge. I resized them, but they're still showing up quite large.)
Here's "Big Red":


He has tiny white tips on his toes and claws.
This is the one we removed:

And his molt:
 

meowzer

Moderator
WOW....the one you removed is scary looking...I have always heard black claws were bad....The top almost looks like a red emerald....I think they are called mithrax...not sure though
WELCOME to SWF....
 

btldreef

Moderator
Meowzer is right, black tipped claws = BAD!
As a general rule, if you can't id it, or if the claws have a very sharp tip, remove it and banish it to the sump if you have one.
 

gingerfish

New Member
I heard this "black tip" rule which is why I took that snail-killin' jerk out of my tank. I just can't bring myself to kill him!
The little red one (aka - Big Red) is hard to tell. Right now he's sooooo tiny that he's probably okay for a little bit.
Funny thing is, the only rock I've purchase for my tank in the last..oh...10-12 months doesn't seem to have big enough spaces for these guys. Big Red MAY have fit in one of them, but Jerk-Head-Black-Tip could not have. Which meeeaaanns. . . He's probably been eating my snails for a looong time. *sigh* All this time I've just assumed my Clowns were savages.
 

btldreef

Moderator
Does he have fuzzy legs? I'm on my phone so the pics come through a little fuzzy.... I don't believe that it's a strawberry crab, they usually have spotted backs, similar to how a strawberry is spotted with seeds.
I'm more inclined to believe that this is some sort of Xanthid crab because of it's shape, but again, viewing this on my phone makes it a little hard.
See if this helps: http://www.chucksaddiction.com/hitchcrabs.html
 

gingerfish

New Member
The first big crab I took out of my tank is definitely some sort of Xanthid, as you guessed.
Big Red (the little red crab that is still in my tank) does not have fuzzy legs.
 

btldreef

Moderator
Originally Posted by GingerFish
http:///forum/post/3293961
The first big crab I took out of my tank is definitely some sort of Xanthid, as you guessed.
Big Red (the little red crab that is still in my tank) does not have fuzzy legs.
My guess would be that he's also a Xanthid, they're are quite a few crabs in the Xanthae species. If you have a sump, that's where I'd send him. Unless he's got sharp claws, I've hears some horror stories of hitchhiker crabs chewing through power cords in sumps.
 

gingerfish

New Member
Holy smokes!
I can't easily tell if his claws are sharp because they're so, so tiny.
What can I do with him if I can't put him in my *future* sump? (I don't have one YET)
 

btldreef

Moderator
Yeah.... they're bad little crabs sometimes
If you can catch him, bring him to your LFS, they'll either use him as a feeder or sell him to someone who has an aggressive tank and doesn't mind the little monster.
I dumped on in my refugium for awhile until he got too big, then he went to the LFS.
 
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