Tiny Crab in my Tank - ID?

[ellebelle]

This afternoon, I was admiring the work that my new turbos were doing on my algae when I noticed a little tiny crab crawling out from under a rock. I turned around to grab my camera and snap a pic, but he was gone by the time I looked again.

The crab looked to be approximately 2 cm across, and almost completely white. I thought it was one of my tiny blue legs poking aroung under the rock until it scuttled out into the light a little more. It has a body shape similar to an anemone crab but it didn't look like it had any spots.

I looked through all of the hitchhiker's guide stuff, but I didn't see anything that looked like what I saw. Any ideas? I haven't seen anything that looks damaged, so I'm hoping it's a friendly hitchhiker, as opposed to an evil one.

 

[bad coffee]

Does it look like this?

Acro crab from jim's tank.

B

 

[ellebelle]

Ah, I think we have a winner! Although, I don't have any acropora. I assume they can live on other corals as well then?

 

[House of Laughter]

They can live in a reef tank, but they prefer to live in an acropora.

I recently put an acro from Midnight madness into my tank (august) it had one (1) acro crab in it (I knoe cause I had to dip the coral and catch the little bugger before dipping).

Now there are 3 :party:

House

 

[jasno999]

Awsome I wil ltake one form you.

 

[nanoreefer22]

Awsome I wil ltake one form you.

:biglaugh: :funnypost I don't get it...

 

[jasno999]

YOur goofy

 

[ellebelle]

Okay, I am resurrecting this thread. I saw my little white crab again today, and it is not an acro crab. I tried to get a photo, and then I tried to rip it out, but the little bugger is fast and digs into the sand. It is completely white - no black band and no black claws. It's maybe a half inch long now and when I saw it, it seemed to be picking things off of one of my rocks, though not bothering the corals. I will post my (poor) photo of it in a bit. Any ideas right off the bat though? Should I try to bait it and get it out?

 

[drunktank]

did it burry itself in the sand?

 

[ellebelle]

Yes. Well, I don't have sand per se, but crushed coral substrate. But yet, he buried himself in that.

 

[drunktank]

there are two types of crabs i've seen which do that. one's kinda small which is basically called a sand shifting crab and looks like a bug, the other looks like an actual crab and sticks its head semi outta the sand and has lil filters on its antenas. But i forget the name

 

[ellebelle]

Do you think I should try and find the little guy and pull him out?

 

[crox99]

They can live in a reef tank, but they prefer to live in an acropora.

I recently put an acro from Midnight madness into my tank (august) it had one (1) acro crab in it (I knoe cause I had to dip the coral and catch the little bugger before dipping).

Now there are 3 :party:

House

Are they bad? I got 5-6 frags and colonies and every single one had a grab on it but I didn't remove them.

 

[scarf_ace1981]

if it's fuzzy in anyway try to get him out. it's better to id once out of the tank.

i just found a 1" fuzzy bugger that must have come on my new LR!

 

[ellebelle]

It doesn't look hairy, and it doesn't have black claws. It's solid white.

Believe me, as soon as I see him again, he'll be banished to my sump. The problem is he's small and the same color as my substrate.

 

[jhale]

he does not sound bad.
if you can get him into the sump it will be easy to idea him though.