Mystery crab

[blkhawk10]

Anyone have any idea what kind of crab this is?

I found it in my fuge with the dismembered body of a 8" serpent star...It looks like a skinny emerald crab.

 

[Reefing Madness]

Looks like an Emerald from the back. Are his claws pointed or rounded off?

 

[Intricateart]

Rock crab for sure.Not bad when small.Will be a problem when its bigger. We find them all the time since we collect our own live rock. We just smash the big ones and feed to fish, they will go crazy for it.

 

[blkhawk10]

His claws are pointed so it's not an emerald but looks like a skinny version of one.

 

[blkhawk10]

I looked up pictures of rock crabs and this didn't look like any of them.

 

[Intricateart]

My husband was just using a common local name for them. They are in fact Panopeus Herbstii, or common mud crabs.

 

[Rickyrooz]

Is it 1/4" wide? If so it could be an acro crab.

 

[blkhawk10]

Nope not a mud crab either...it's about maybe 3/4" wide, none of the Acro crab pics I looked at look like it either.

 

[Intricateart]

This type of small crab exists under basically every rock. I'm assuming you grabbed it locally since you live in tampa and these guys are abundant here? This just makes a long list of unappealing little drab critters that will kill something given the chance. The advice remains the same- smash it, feed it to the fish.