.Newman. Posted January 16, 2011 Share Posted January 16, 2011 Very tiny crab HH i found in my reef. probably arrived on some Gulf/Atlantic coast macro algaa or atlantic bay scallops. If it helps, his eyes are not far apart and on the side of his head like msot crabs (ie. blue, green crabs) they are kinda narrower and positioned at the front of the head. I can tell it is a meat eater from the shape of the claws so i immediately removed it from my reef. he's living alone now with some macro algae and some amphipods lol. if a better pic is needed, ill try to get one. This is surely a male commensal Pea crab, mystery solved! Credit goes to jdl. Link to comment
.Newman. Posted January 17, 2011 Author Share Posted January 17, 2011 bump. would really like to know what he is Link to comment
Ferrari_Jones Posted January 18, 2011 Share Posted January 18, 2011 Possibly a baby gorilla crab. Link to comment
Kazooie Posted January 18, 2011 Share Posted January 18, 2011 Shape kinda reminds me of a emerald. But that's like the only crab I've seen. Link to comment
irondragon013 Posted January 18, 2011 Share Posted January 18, 2011 Those claws don't look like an emerald crab to me. They seem much more dangerous. That and the legs aren't hairy lol. Link to comment
BigBad82 Posted January 18, 2011 Share Posted January 18, 2011 see if you can find it on here mate. http://www.chucksaddiction.com/hitchcrabs.html Link to comment
.Newman. Posted January 18, 2011 Author Share Posted January 18, 2011 thanks for all the guesses guys. Might not be a Xanthid crab, its body shape isn't oval at all and its eyes are too close together to look like the gorilla/other xanthids... I checked that chuck's addiction page many times and its the first source i go to, but no luck keep the guesses coming, would really like to find out what he is. maybe if he grew up more we could have better guesses...but he's staying very small lol. Link to comment
FishStrings Posted January 31, 2011 Share Posted January 31, 2011 Porcelain probably. Link to comment
carbon-mantis Posted January 31, 2011 Share Posted January 31, 2011 Porcelain probably. Not a porcelain, the fellow in the picture has eight legs. Link to comment
.Newman. Posted March 3, 2011 Author Share Posted March 3, 2011 must be a spider crab then seriously though, any more ideas guys? it is not a porcelain, its a carnivore. not filter feeder. Link to comment
Goonie0 Posted March 3, 2011 Share Posted March 3, 2011 Rock crab? Does it look like this one that came with my own live rock? http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?...t&p=2455826 Link to comment
lakshwadeep Posted March 3, 2011 Share Posted March 3, 2011 It doesn't look like a xanthid, which are more oval in shape. Link to comment
.Newman. Posted March 4, 2011 Author Share Posted March 4, 2011 snouris: the dungeoness crab looks closest so far to mine, but i can already tell its not a dungeoness crab. mine has a bit or a different body shape and the coloration is tan colored carapace with brown markings. idk why i'm describing it lol, the pic is right there... Goonie: not quite, surely not a xanthid as mentioned. doesnt look anything like a rock crab. the pic is in the first post, can some people not see it? Link to comment
Loading Posted March 4, 2011 Share Posted March 4, 2011 Any of these? http://www.dfw.state.or.us/mrp/shellfish/o...lotsam_crab.asp Link to comment
RayWhisperer Posted March 4, 2011 Share Posted March 4, 2011 Just by the carapace shape, it looks to be in the Cyclocoeloma sp. That is, however, just a guess on shape alone. By no means am I an expert on crabs. Link to comment
jdl Posted March 4, 2011 Share Posted March 4, 2011 that is tough.. it def looks like some type of spider or mud crab. i have some books devoted to all of the crab species that are prey for marine fish. i want to lean towards the mud crab, but the shape of the carapace throws me off a little. i will be using this picture for a reference in my fly tying if that makes you feel any better. pinnotheres? might have come with scallops Link to comment
Formula462 Posted March 4, 2011 Share Posted March 4, 2011 that is tough.. it def looks like some type of spider or mud crab. i have some books devoted to all of the crab species that are prey for marine fish. i want to lean towards the mud crab, but the shape of the carapace throws me off a little. i will be using this picture for a reference in my fly tying if that makes you feel any better. pinnotheres? might have come with scallops How are you gonna use the pic to reference fly tying. I'm confused lol. Link to comment
jdl Posted March 4, 2011 Share Posted March 4, 2011 color pattern, claw placement, size (if id'd), im sure there are some of those on the oyster beds around here and would be a good crab to imitate. the mithrax for instance (emerald) is one of the crabs most eaten by bonefish and sometimes permit. there are even porcelain crab flys out there Link to comment
.Newman. Posted March 6, 2011 Author Share Posted March 6, 2011 @Loading: doesnt look like any of those. similar body shape but the face is different, eyes are closer together. @Ray: decorator crab surely has the correct face shape and eye distance, like my crab, but my crab doesnt have those last pair of legs that point up and hold w/e it's decorating itself with. and my crab isnt spiny, its all smooth so further suggests its something else. @jdl: looks sorta like the mud crab though mine doesnt have the serrated carapace edges. The commensal pea crab? I totally should have searched that more (because all i found on my first search were ghostly looking white crabs) because that is totally what this crab is! Pinnotheres maculatus might be the species or definitely a relative. The coloration matches Pinnotheres pisum more... I am glad i included the scallop info bit because that really helped out in the ID. Definitely arrived in one of the scallops, as I made sure to shake out the macro algae before taking it from the tank. I didnt want any large harmful animals hitchhiking lol. but there was no way of shaking out the scallops which were closed lol! this also explains its very small size and explains why it hasnt grown much in the past months. Apparently the male of this kind of crab grows to only about 7mm or so. mines a tad larger than that but still within range. I have also ID'd him as a male! the female lives in the bivalve all her life and is white-transparent in color and has a soft carapace. the male is more free-living, has a hard carapace, is yellow-tan in color with brown markings - totally my crab. The bad part is that I think this crab has a life span of only 1 year =/ Info credited to: http://wikis.evergreen.edu/marinelife1011/index.php/Pea_Crab Link to comment
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