Good crab, bad crab

[polyppetey]

I found this guy hiding on a frag I bought today, It is a TINY crab about the size of a lentil bean. It is white in color and has 5 browning orange spots on its shell, sorry for the picture it is so tiny.

 

The little claws are nice and pointy.

[lionman]

I found this guy hiding on a frag I bought today, It is a TINY crab about the size of a lentil bean. It is white in color and has 5 browning orange spots in a pentagon shape on its shell, sorry for the picture it is so tiny.

 

The little claws are nice and pointy.

 

Completely harmless. Has he in a Acropora frag ? It looks like a symbiotic crab

[reefdan]

i don't know about completely harmless based on that pic and description.

 

generally, crabs that are hairy are bad. if it was in an acro frag, it's likely an acro crab that is harmless.

 

i am sure others will chime in

[polyppetey]

It was not in a Acropora frag I got it with a softie. It was the same color though I almost did not see it.

[PoopCola]

pretty cool looking

but always be wary of crabs (almost all crabs are opportunistic omnivores at best)

[lakshwadeep]

hairy crabs are not always bad, but crabs are omnivores, which is potentially bad. Try looking here for an ID (maybe porcellanidae):

http://www.chucksaddiction.com/hitchcrabs.html

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-12/rs/index.php

[Ignatius14]

I've always had the mindset removing any crab that I didn't place in my tank, if I can. First tip off would be the claws...sharp claws are bad, rounded claws (like an emerald) are ok most of the time provided they don't get really big.

[RedMan25xl]

looks like the crabs out by tybee island..