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Black Crab ID

Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2007 9:02 pm
by glynn2262
I have a black crab in my tank. it is black all over with black eyes and no markings. It is about the size of a half dollar. seems to be a recluse, I have not put anything in this tank large enough for the crab to come in on for months and this is the first time I have seen it. Any ideas?

Thanks,
Glynn

Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2007 9:51 am
by Amphiprion
Likely a predatory/opportunistic species. It the claws are flattened and spatulate, then I would bet on some sort of Xanthid species. They seem to be the most common as far as hitchhikers go, anyway. It may be best to remove it the next time you see it and relocate it to a refugium or something similar. I would not trust these crabs to remain in a display.

Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2007 5:21 pm
by lzb3
My expereince with crabs is that ALL of them are baaaad. I have never had a sigle crab that was of benefit in any way. Maybe that's just me. Even the seemingly innocent sally light foot crabs have been barbarians in my tank. I won't have any more.

My suggestions it to get rid of it if you can. Problem with crabs is that they are very difficult to catch. As gruesum as it may seem, we had to spear one of ours. They are often predatory if there is nothing that is dead/dying that they can feed on and they tend to stalk, kill and eat bottom dwelling fish like gobis, etc.

If you have a refugium and you like the little devil, put it in there, otherwise find it a new home. Just my 2 cents.

Eli-