Phixion Posted January 19, 2007 Share Posted January 19, 2007 Things are starting to make their appearance from my almost 2 weeks old Fiji L/R... I found one of these crabs dead on the sand the beginning of this week, then I found this one, same type of crab but a little bit bigger than the dead one I found. I never got a pic of the other one... But anyways, it has blood red colored pincers, and light brown sandy colored legs that are rather hairy in appearance. The top shell is the same color as the pincers... It's about the size of a nickel I'd say. This was the best pic I could get of it today unfortunately: And the snail looking creature. The pic speaks for itself, but I've found a couple, they only stay on the rocks so far and appear to be eating algae and/or detrius. They look like snails that are missing shells or something. In the pic you can see the gray colored pesudopod (false foot like snails have) under the body of it: Link to comment
Reef Gator Posted January 19, 2007 Share Posted January 19, 2007 Don't know about the crab, but the snail looks like a stomatella. Link to comment
Phixion Posted January 19, 2007 Author Share Posted January 19, 2007 Don't know about the crab, but the snail looks like a stomatella. Ahh, I'll have to look them up... Link to comment
TNreefguy Posted January 19, 2007 Share Posted January 19, 2007 I dont know about the crab but the snail thing I believe to be a chiton but the spelling might be off. they are harmless and just a herbavore. Link to comment
circusordie16 Posted January 19, 2007 Share Posted January 19, 2007 maybe a gorilla crab? and then snail is a stomatella, chiton have segmented looking shells. Link to comment
Phixion Posted January 19, 2007 Author Share Posted January 19, 2007 Could it be some sort of decorator crab?? =/ And the snail thing, after looking at pics of them, it's a stomatella for sure!! Link to comment
Legacy Posted January 20, 2007 Share Posted January 20, 2007 I'm thinking he's up to no good. Here's a link I found showing images of the Gorilla Crab, and the Stone Crab. I was originally thinking it was a Gorilla Crab because of the dark tips on the claws, but because of it's fairly smooth carapace, I'm leaning towards stone crab. Dump that fool in the refugium or bring him over and drop him in with my GSP. Link to comment
darkfishy2690 Posted January 20, 2007 Share Posted January 20, 2007 could be a decorator crab. Give it some odd things to wear, if it does give us a picture! Link to comment
Phixion Posted January 20, 2007 Author Share Posted January 20, 2007 Not a stoney, Dave. I'm still guessing decorator. How do I offer it things to wear? lol! So far it's staying in the confines of one rock, and just eats algae and things off the rock. Hasn't ventured out into the open, not that I've seen at least. I did get another pic of it last night however. You can see how the upper parts of its legs are hairy... Link to comment
Izzue Posted January 20, 2007 Share Posted January 20, 2007 Careful... I dont trust the look of that crab... Strange how it has a hairy Gorilla half...but the front claws appear to be designed for cutting instead of grabbing. Wonder if he has some mutated holding legs on the bottom and the front pinchers he uses to scale his meal lol Izzue Link to comment
Phixion Posted January 20, 2007 Author Share Posted January 20, 2007 Careful...I dont trust the look of that crab... Strange how it has a hairy Gorilla half...but the front claws appear to be designed for cutting instead of grabbing. Wonder if he has some mutated holding legs on the bottom and the front pinchers he uses to scale his meal lol Izzue lol, well it seems kinda skitish and timid. NEVER comes out of it's cave, and it usually runs from light when I flash a light onto it. It just munches away on algae and such. In fact last night my torch fell from where I had it, and the crab was in the hole I had the torch end in and my clown was swimming right above (has no sense it's host just took a dive). Anyways, the crab a mere inches away, and it didn't even bother the fish nor did my clow bother the crab. I'm not saying the crab is safe persay, but it's not a meat eater either... Legacy above did some searching for me and i came across this pic which is almost exactly what my crab looks like... Pic here if that one doesn't show up. The description a reefer gave of the crab described mine exactly as well... Note bristly hair and black-tipped pincers.) One of my Blog readers ID'd it as a Pilumnus fissifrons, which seems right on, except that there is almost no information about it. We've spied bits of legs in the rock over the last few months, but haven't seen the full crab until last night. We were horrified to realize that his body alone is now two inches across and with his legs he's over three. He's bigger than our fish. We watched him for long enough to conclude that he seems to be eating just coralline algae and is scared of the fish, but is big enough that he's actually shifting the rocks as he feeds. We want him out of the tank, but are at a loss as to how. He seems more or less to move between four 5-10 lb rocks, some of which have zoos and mushrooms, so we don't want to lose them. He's a very quick mover when he's scared and only comes partway out of the rocks, so catching him with a net seems daunting. And he seems, for the moment, not to eat meat, so we're not really sure how to seed a trap. I'll have to research the type mentioned above... I don't think it's a Gorilla though. Link to comment
Phixion Posted January 20, 2007 Author Share Posted January 20, 2007 Just snapped yet another pic of this mystery crab: I believe that it's definitely a type of Pilumnus (hairy) crab that what i can tell just eats algae and possibly coralline. Worst thing for a tank it sounds like it does is the potential to move and topple over rocks. I still gotta research and ask around on it though. Here's one more MUCH better pic. Definitely not a predator crab. As you can see in the pic, the claws are hallowed out like spoons, not pointed for grabbing, but hallowed for scraping. Link to comment
Izzue Posted January 21, 2007 Share Posted January 21, 2007 Nice Pic!!!! Agreed...just watch for his molts to see how fast and how big he might get. Izzue Link to comment
Phixion Posted January 21, 2007 Author Share Posted January 21, 2007 Nice Pic!!!! Agreed...just watch for his molts to see how fast and how big he might get. Izzue Thanks, I never thought about the molting part, lol! Good looking out!! Link to comment
UKNanoNoob Posted January 21, 2007 Share Posted January 21, 2007 I have a crab exactly like that too. I really thought at first that he was a emerald that had lost his coloring but after reading this thread im thinking otherwise. My crab never strays from his cave and he is really strong too. He has moved several small pieces of LR too plug up one of the entrances to his cave and also has managed too bore a complete hole through a large piece of LR. Link to comment
Phixion Posted January 21, 2007 Author Share Posted January 21, 2007 I have a crab exactly like that too. I really thought at first that he was a emerald that had lost his coloring but after reading this thread im thinking otherwise. My crab never strays from his cave and he is really strong too. He has moved several small pieces of LR too plug up one of the entrances to his cave and also has managed too bore a complete hole through a large piece of LR. You sure your's isn't a mantis? lol! Mine hasn't moved anything yet... but today it DID stray from it's cave, that's now i got the last 2 pics i posted. I think it depleated the nutrients from in it's cave and I had to wander out to get more eats, lol. It stayed in the back behind the rock though, not coming out into the open. What a bummer! Link to comment
Maeda Posted January 22, 2007 Share Posted January 22, 2007 Kill the crab. Never trust crustraceans. I had a 'harmless' hitchhiker crab stab my sixline in the EYE while it was sleeping. It ate it's face off, and threw away the rest because he decided meat wasn't so great. Link to comment
Phixion Posted January 22, 2007 Author Share Posted January 22, 2007 Kill the crab. Never trust crustraceans. I had a 'harmless' hitchhiker crab stab my sixline in the EYE while it was sleeping. It ate it's face off, and threw away the rest because he decided meat wasn't so great. Too bad it wasn't the clown, ehh? j/k Unfortunately the crab is currently MIA as has been the case the past 3 days. I think my paparazzi attack on it scared it either to death or to hide indefinitely, ahahaha!!! But yeah, I haven't seen it in a few days, kinda worried about that. Link to comment
ezcompany Posted January 23, 2007 Share Posted January 23, 2007 Too bad it wasn't the clown, ehh? j/k Unfortunately the crab is currently MIA as has been the case the past 3 days. I think my paparazzi attack on it scared it either to death or to hide indefinitely, ahahaha!!! But yeah, I haven't seen it in a few days, kinda worried about that. most crabs start out as herbivores. then as they grow, they quickly turn into carnivores. its time to watch some "blue oceans" dvd, learn some marine bio! Link to comment
Phixion Posted January 23, 2007 Author Share Posted January 23, 2007 most crabs start out as herbivores. then as they grow, they quickly turn into carnivores. its time to watch some "blue oceans" dvd, learn some marine bio! Right now I'm just worried it's MIA going on 3 days!! Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.