Crab ID?

[PolypPocket]

Already moved it to the tank of shame but curious about what it could be. I have two gorilla crabs in the “TOS” too and they look pretty different than this guy (I don’t have a sump so I set up a small tank). Rock was from TBS. It is hairy but barely, and has dark claws with white tips. Also slightly more bold than the gorillas, I would see it cautiously coming out at feeding time whereas the gorillas wouldn’t budge until after dark.

 

[Ron Reefman]

I'm 95% sure it's a baby Stone Crab (black tips on the claws). They are very common where TBS gets their rocks from. They are carnivorous (may eat snails while small) and they grow rather quickly.

I do a lot of live collecting of CUC when I snorkel in the Florida Keys for my own tanks. I never take stone crabs home.

If you are interested, there is a link to a snorkeling & collecting thread here at R2R in my signature below. There are lots of photos (all taken by my wife). We snorkel near shore patch reefs.

I even occasionally see a small octopus. This one was on some stony coral. BTW, this coral is NPS and is found all over the seabed in shallow path reefs... and it's totally illegal to collect!

 

[PolypPocket]

I'm 95% sure it's a baby Stone Crab (black tips on the claws). They are very common where TBS gets their rocks from. They are carnivorous (may eat snails while small) and they grow rather quickly.

I do a lot of live collecting of CUC when I snorkel in the Florida Keys for my own tanks. I never take stone crabs home.

Ah ok that makes sense then, going to google them to see what I’m up against. Thank you

 

[PolypPocket]

I'm 95% sure it's a baby Stone Crab (black tips on the claws). They are very common where TBS gets their rocks from. They are carnivorous (may eat snails while small) and they grow rather quickly.

I do a lot of live collecting of CUC when I snorkel in the Florida Keys for my own tanks. I never take stone crabs home.

If you are interested, there is a link to a snorkeling & collecting thread here at R2R in my signature below. There are lots of photos (all taken by my wife). We snorkel near shore patch reefs.

I even occasionally see a small octopus. This one was on some stony coral. BTW, this coral is NPS and is found all over the seabed in shallow path reefs... and it's totally illegal to collect!

You must have edited your post? Or I didn’t see the rest of your message the first time. Yes I’d love to see! I’m on the app so I can’t see your signature. I will try on a browser.

Edit: could it be a black fingered mud crab?

 

[PolypPocket]

 

[Ron Reefman]

I seriously doubt it. The mud crab's carapace is broader at the sides and much less translucent. In 20 years of 2 to 4 snorkeling/collecting trips a year to the Keys, I've never seen a mud crab.

Snorkel & Collecting thread: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/snorkeling-collecting-discussion-group.412414/

This was my 40g aio tank before I pulled all the sps and lps corals out and put them in a new 20g aio tank. I'll try today to get a couple of photos of the current tanks.

 

[LiverockRocks Verified Sponsor]

Juvenile stone crabs look like these.

 

[Baldyreef]

Juvenile stone crabs look like these.

they can vary as babies middle left pic perfectly matches OP's photos

 

[Baldyreef]

Ah ok that makes sense then, going to google them to see what I’m up against. Thank you

they're pretty destructive as they get older and can and will hunt your cuc

 

[LiverockRocks Verified Sponsor]

they can vary as babies middle left pic perfectly matches OP's photos

Where is this source from?

 

[Baldyreef]

Where is this source from?

I a frontier article which about the color change and camouflage in juvenile shore crabs which seems to be what op's is

 

[Baldyreef]

https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/ecology-and-evolution/articles/10.3389/fevo.2014.00014/full

 

[Baldyreef]

if they are infact shore crabs or even stone crabs both are destructive and predatory and shore crabs are semi terrestrial

 

[LiverockRocks Verified Sponsor]

they can vary as babies middle left pic perfectly matches OP's photos

Okay, just want to clarify that these photos are shore crabs and not stone crabs.

 

[Baldyreef]

Okay, just want to clarify that these photos are shore crabs and not stone crabs.

Yeah that’s why I said that I think they’re shore crabs which unfortunately are harmful to the tank like stone crabs

 

[LiverockRocks Verified Sponsor]

Yeah that’s why I said that I think they’re shore crabs which unfortunately are harmful to the tank like stone crabs

Reading along the thread, the discussion was stone crabs and mud crabs.

Below our stone crab image, you post images of crabs and state they can vary as babies.

This is misleading because the images were shore crabs, not stone crabs.

There is no mention of shore crabs until I ask for the source of the images.

 

[Baldyreef]

thank you for pointing out my mistake I honestly did not realize what I had done sorry for the confusion but I have to admit you lost me a bit with the "reading along the thread, the discussion is stone crabs and mud crabs" as the op made this post to id the crab not a debate on whether mud or stone crab it is still possible to be a type of shore crabs as the middle left pictured in the link to the article, but anyways thanks for pointing out the mistake and correcting me and I'm happy that op was able to remove the crab before any potential damage could be done

 

[LiverockRocks Verified Sponsor]

thank you for pointing out my mistake I honestly did not realize what I had done sorry for the confusion but I have to admit you lost me a bit with the "reading along the thread, the discussion is stone crabs and mud crabs" as the op made this post to id the crab not a debate on whether mud or stone crab it is still possible to be a type of shore crabs as the middle left pictured in the link to the article

Just trying to avoid confusion about identification of juvenile stone crabs here.

The op image is not a stone crab; it does look like the shore crab in your image.
The TBS farm is 7 miles out, so this is not something we would not usually see. @PolypPocket do you have other rock from Florida in your tank?

 

[PolypPocket]

thank you for pointing out my mistake I honestly did not realize what I had done sorry for the confusion but I have to admit you lost me a bit with the "reading along the thread, the discussion is stone crabs and mud crabs" as the op made this post to id the crab not a debate on whether mud or stone crab it is still possible to be a type of shore crabs as the middle left pictured in the link to the article

Just trying to avoid confusion about identification of juvenile stone crabs here.

The op image is not a stone crab; it does look like the shore crab in your image.
The TBS farm is 7 miles out, so this is not something we would not usually see. @PolypPocket do you have other rock from Florida in your tank?

No the only other rock was dry frag rock that came painted pink (super ugly haha). I found several “gorilla” crabs and then the one that we are trying to ID on the rock I got from you

They have all been moved to their own tank so that they don’t harm anything in my display tank. I don’t like killing anything if I can help it.

These are the gorilla crabs, super hairy under water and clearly (to me, but I’m no expert obviously) different than the lighter one. They’re also a lot more reclusive than the lighter one. Mystery crab will come out cautiously at feeding time (moves very slowly) whereas the gorilla crabs never venture out until after dark.

 

[PolypPocket]

Juvenile stone crabs look like these.

they can vary as babies middle left pic perfectly matches OP's photos

Thank you for weighing in, this crab is even more a mystery now