The more I look, the more I find...

[Lrn2Reef]

I'm sure by now all you AP people out there are sick of me but here's something else I found in my tank... my first INTERESTING hitchhicker.

So Im almost home after a long @$$ day at work and think well, when I get home it will be around 11pm, I'll grab a shower and get some food and test my water levels and stare at my mezmorizing but boring snails and hermit crabs.

I get home and my b/f tells me OMG come see this video something tried to eat our snail. So I'm watching this little clip and I'm about as scared as a little kid seeing a clown for the first time, not the nice ones but the psyco ones (I know some of you know what I mean).

Apparently just before he starts recording the little @#$%*&%^ actually tried to pull a snail thats about 1.5 times his size into his hiding spot (to eat him I suppose).

This guy must be pretty hardy seeing as how it survived shipping to the LFS, car ride and a few stops to my house, fluctuating water levels and temperature/lighting/heat issues.

Needless to say we figured he was agressive (poor snail will be in counselling for years) sooooo, we decided to rip apart our nice picture perfect tank to find the jerk and he turns out to be this tiny little small thing.... FRUSTRATING and now the tank is murky!

He is now in a tupperware container with a bit of sand/rock inside our fuge so he still has some water flow... we fed him some betta food pellets earlier which he gobbled IMMMEDIATELY (we had nothing else as we don't have anything other than our CUC in the tank) and he seems to be in good health.

Here he is.

Video (http://members.shaw.ca/lugg/tank/CrabID1/CrabID1.wmv)
You can see the snail on the bottom of the video. Look how he pokes his claw out like a kid trying to sneak the last cookie out of the cookie jar! You might need to right click the link adn do "Save Target As".


Picture (http://members.shaw.ca/lugg/tank/CrabID1/CrabID1.jpg)
So, anyone know what he is?

I'm fairly sure he's aggressive. Any thoughts?

[Monti]

No descript hitch hiker crab. He musta got hungry. Check out this website. Maybe you can find him there.

http://www.reefimages.com/

[timsbmw2000]

thats some quick claws....just taging along bc i would like to know what he is...obviously some sort of crab

[Mugster]

From the looks of the tips of the claws I would say it's a herbivore and not a predator crab. Herbivores have flat tips or pad-like tips for grasping vegetation. Predator crabs have pointed or sharp tips. JMHO





:hi1:

[Mugster]

I just watched the video and I say it's definitely a herbivore crab. I see the same behavior from my Emerald crabs. Look closely at the claw tips. They have small little flat areas like pads.






:hi1:

[bigtyguyy]

so no one knows the name of it. I would like one of those lol looks pretty active. lol

[Itsanecho]

Ha! Ive got two of those little critters. One's about two inches across and the second just a little guy, maybe half an inch across. The closest ive come to identifying these guys is that they're black fingered mud crabs. Niether have killed any of their tank mates, however, i have watched as the bigger of the two has grabbed hold of a passing snail or hermits shell, thrashed it around, and sometimes pinned the poor victim and cleaned the coraline of the shell. Both have toppled corals, on a nightly basis, which has been a growing aggravation over the past month or two. The only thing i have ever seen them eat is the coraline of my rocks. Ill see if i can find the link to the site which identified them.

http://www.melevsreef.com/id/crabs.html

Jim

[StevieK]

i believe the crab is a Mitrax Crab which eats algae and not your snails ... you should not worry

his other name is Emerald Mitrax Crab ... people are paying 10-15 bucks for these babies

[Itsanecho]

Its definately not an Emerald Crab, its not GREEN - hence EMERALD. However, due to the spoon like claw tips, it is a herbavor, so toss him back in your DT and enjoy his antics.

[StevieK]

Its definately not an Emerald Crab, its not GREEN - hence EMERALD. However, due to the spoon like claw tips, it is a herbavor, so toss him back in your DT and enjoy his antics.

itsanecho please see:
http://www.meerwasser-lexikon.de/eng/58/1892/Mithrax/sp..htm

by the way, you misspelled both herbivore and definitely

[Lrn2Reef]

Wow thanks a bunch guys this site is awsome for the wealth of knowledge that it holds. I still don't trust the sneaky little bugger something about that shifty behavior bugs me! We KNOW for sure he grabbed the snail but it also seems logical that the poor thing was just looking for food. I dunno.... maybe I will hang onto him a bit longer... I'll try him with my newly aquired cheato, see if he will eat it. For now we have set up an old 1g tank for him with LR, sand and water of course. He does seem oddly content to eat the flake fish food so I'm guess I'm starting to trust him a bit. Maybe he can stay in the tank alone for a bit till heal learns snails are friends not food! BTW that's from Finding Nemo I love that movie!
Original quote was "Fish are friends not food!" (says the great white shark named bruce).

[ajx22]

LOL (re the Finding Nemo quotes).

In respect to the Mythrix crab - they are indeed algaevores ... but not so much macro-algae (Chaeto, Caulerpa, etc.) eaters.

As you look at their claws...you will see they are cup-like. This allows them to scrape off algae from the rock. Get some sinking Spirulina wafers (not pellets) - and drop 1/2 of one down next to him once a week. I say 1/2 of one due to the very small size of your tank...

Crabs are opportunistic feeders - so as long as you keep him full - you won't have to worry about him hunting. Just like with people...if someone was to bring you food and everything you needed while you sat on the couch...you're not very likely to go out into the world to hunt food. Keep 'em full - they'll stay lazy. lol

:cheers2:

[Lrn2Reef]

That's cool... should I add him back into my main tank or just leave him in his 1g. He took that cheato I put in there and pulled it into his hole, kinda strange but w/e. I will go out and buy some food for him tomorrow and then well see how it goes with him coming back.

I just added my FIRST actual fish (x2) so I don't want to be putting more into my tank (IE the food for him) atm. I did a test about 8 hrs after adding them and didn't notice a spike but I'm expecting I will eventually and I don't want to add anything atm that would make it spike more.

Thanks for all the advice guys it's great to know that I'm not the only one with all these wierd creatures cropping up from my LR that is apparently cured.

PS here are the fish I got today.... so cute.

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_Display.cfm?pCatId=755

http://a1272.g.akamai.net/7/1272/1121/20040820172514/www.liveaquaria.com/images/products/bigimage/lg_88039.jpg