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Friend or Foe?
- Thread starter Patriot76
- Start date
it's not a crab from the xanthidae family...(aka dark-finger crabs). As Dr. Ron Shimek would say - there are just too many to identify from that family and virtually impossible to identify given that most of the ones in our tanks are juveniles.
Regardless - it does look like the red mithrax - pretty common from the gulf of mexico tbs lr. It's too small at this stage to be of any real danger and even at a larger size - would really only be of risk to fish that inhabit similar locales (e.g. gobies). I know some folks like to have crabs in their tank- and given the size of this guy- I'd be inclined to say "it'll be fine". Personally I removed all the crabs save the porcelain ones from my tbs lr. They lived in the sump until i needed food for the mantis.
Regardless - it does look like the red mithrax - pretty common from the gulf of mexico tbs lr. It's too small at this stage to be of any real danger and even at a larger size - would really only be of risk to fish that inhabit similar locales (e.g. gobies). I know some folks like to have crabs in their tank- and given the size of this guy- I'd be inclined to say "it'll be fine". Personally I removed all the crabs save the porcelain ones from my tbs lr. They lived in the sump until i needed food for the mantis.
I say banish the bugger!
At his size, I would label him a snail-muncher.
There's only a few crabs that are really reef-safe in the sense that they won't consume other creatures as well as not consume corals. I won't claim to be an expert on identifying them, but I've lost hundreds of $ in snails over the years to hitchhiker crabs. You've already got the bugger in hand, don't forget how tough it is to catch them.
At his size, I would label him a snail-muncher.
There's only a few crabs that are really reef-safe in the sense that they won't consume other creatures as well as not consume corals. I won't claim to be an expert on identifying them, but I've lost hundreds of $ in snails over the years to hitchhiker crabs. You've already got the bugger in hand, don't forget how tough it is to catch them.
