A couple rock hitchikers, some sort of snail and crab ID?

[jademarie]

So I just put together my first reef, and I bought some live rock from my local pet store, not really looking closely at the rock.  When I got home I found a snail on it, and later noticed a teeny crab.

 

The crab is very small.  It's a white/gray color with orangeish spots.  It's mostly hiding in holes in the rock and I haven't seen it again for a couple days.  Anyone have any idea what it is?  I didn't get a picture of it.

 

I also found this snail.  He stays on the rock.  He isn't able to right himself when he falls onto the sand.  I've had to pick him up and put him back a couple times.

 

I also got this clownfish.  One of his sides is completely normal but on his other side his stripe is broken.  Any ideas what morph he is?  He was labeled just a normal oscellaris and I even got him on sale.  I'd say he was a steal

[sublunary]

Snail looks like a nerite. 

 

There are enough crabs out there who are whitish with orange spots that we might not be able to narrow it down without a picture. My first thought from the description was clown crab, but I don't know how likely they are to hitchhike in.  If you ever get the opportunity, try to get clear pics of the body shape and claw shape.

[mndfreeze]

The general rule of thumb on crabs is assume bad, get a picture, and start searching and hope it turns out to be one of the very few 'ok' ones. haha.   Black tipped claws are bad, hairy is bad, pointed claws are bad.  There are very very few crabs that are truly reef safe as most are very opportunistic feeders and will take out a fish if they catch it sleeping or nom nom on some delicious polyps if hungry enough.

 

Pom Pom crabs, porcelain crabs, emerald crabs, pocillipora crabs seem to be the exceptions.  There are of course others I'm sure but these are the common ones you see in the hobby.   

 

I didn't include decorator crabs in this.  They are generally 'safe-ish' but are a pain in the ass for the obvious reason that they will steal your frags to wear lol.  Some decorators stay really small and love sponges, others can get masssssiiivvee and would wear you if given the chance.

 

[jamescstein]

Snail looks like a margarita snail. The clown would just be called a misbar.

[sublunary]

20 minutes ago, jamescstein said:

Snail looks like a margarita snail.

Oh you're right. I looked at the color pattern, but it's shell shape is much more margarita.

[KNelson]

18 minutes ago, jamescstein said:

Snail looks like a margarita snail. The clown would just be called a misbar.

+1 to both. 

 

My margarita snails died pretty quickly after introduction.  I was informed that they are from cooler waters than our reefs. 

[jademarie]

Thank you all for your help.  I went back to the pet store and those types of snails are labeled as margarita snails.  Someone also told me the crab sounds like a porcelain crab after I described it.  I'll try to get a picture of him if I can but I haven't seen him since that first day.  I really hope he didn't die    One thing I've learned from  keeping freshwater is not to add CUC inverts right away because they don't have anything to eat yet (no algae or detritus yet).

[mndfreeze]

porcelain crabs are easy to identify if you get a clear view of it, especially when its feeding.  You can't mistake those big wavy filter feeding arms it has.   They are pretty reclusive in general though so you might have to get a red light flashlight and search at night.  You also can get a normal flashlight and put a red filter over it. Inverts can't see red light normally (most of them anyway) so you can spy on em while their roaming around at night.

[jademarie]

I saw the crab again! I compared him to some pictures on Google and he does look like a porcelain crab. I hadn't intended to get one but he's pretty cool looking and he was free so I call it a win.