what kind of crab is this?

[flakbait]

Wondering what kind of crab is this?
I think he was found on Florida LR (not sure). He’s got black tipped claws and somewhat hairy legs (as you can see), which probably means bad news.

 

[JoJosReef]

Looks like bad news to me. Sump king? @ISpeakForTheSeas have you seen this one before?

 

[Doctorgori]

Sump lord is my vote also

 

[flakbait]

yeah he’ll most definitely have to be sumped sadly. I found this old forum post with the exact same crab as mine.

orange crab ID

Hey everybody, I've had this crab in my LR since 2005 and i only just caught him the other day and I can't find a pic or description of him anywhere on the net so i thought I'd ask you guys. Here's the pic over the years i have had a couple of fish disappear and some corals get "bite" marks and t...

www.nano-reef.com

Wish it was safe, looks cool

 

[IKD]

Stone crabs are a high priced food item. Get him big and fat in that sump LOL

 

[StatelineReefer]

Sustainable crab claw meat. Wish I had a sump full of these guys.

 

[ptrahan]

If/when he grows, depending on how big he gets, he could do some damage down there. Wires, filter media, etc.
Gorilla crab/stone crab. Common in Florida rock.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Looks like bad news to me. Sump king? @ISpeakForTheSeas have you seen this one before?

I haven't seen one like this before. It doesn't look like a stone crab (Menippe sp.) or a Xanthid crab to me, as the eyes are too far apart. My best guess is a Pilumnid crab (these used to be considered in the Xanthoidea superfamily, so they could be considered gorilla crabs), but I'm not entirely sure.

Regardless, it's definitely not one I would trust to be reef safe. So, yeah, I'd sump it, and -as mentioned above - I'd make sure that it can't get at anything important (like wires) in the sump.

 

[PeterEde]

I have a couple of these run around inside my rock. They never venture out. So far I find them to be no problem

 

[Lavey29]

Innocent until proven guilty.

 

[flakbait]

I believe he is responsible for the disappearance of my fire work clove polyps. They were doing fine one day, then just disappeared the next. Crabs will be crabs I suppose, thanks for the help.

 

[flakbait]

Strangely enough, I've never seen his molts or the crab getting physically bigger?

 

[PeterEde]

Strangely enough, I've never seen his molts or the crab getting physically bigger?

I see molts or shell. Not sure if dispatched or molt but crab never seem to get bigger