Help- Good or Bad hitchhiker?

[ktomminello]

Well, here's my little story- I have been trying to set up a 10g nano reef, just corals and clean up crew, I have no interest in introducing any fish. I started this project a few months ago, but when my puffer tank got stalled from an algaefix/ over vacuuming incident, I used my initial nano reef live rock (was already starting to get some button polyps opening) to push life into my sandbed for my puffer and make up for the bb that I took out. Needless to say while I fixed my puffer tank I left my nano reef set up (2 30g HOB filters with only mechanical biopads, 3 20g rated air pumps, 300gph circulator, 3 100w heaters- one with temp control set to 80f and the other 2 are 76f preset backup heaters and 30lbs of sand/ dolomite chips). I didn't have any live rock or anything in it for my hitchhiker worms, I just kept stirring up a section here and there, I figured everything in there was dead and the decay would kill anything that may have been there. I am finally starting back in on my nano and placed 2 large aqua cultured live rocks along with some smaller rocks that I had broken up from my puffer tank.

As far as saltwater and reef tanks, I am still researching and fascinated, but I have only been a hobbyist for a few months- well, almost a year, and it all started with a conversion of a freshwater green spotted puffer to brackish to saltwater. I watched my live rock grow macro algae and bristle and tube worms and I was hooked!! I wanted a reef only tank next to my bed. Well now I have this cute little red crab that kind of just strolled out of one of the large live rocks. I know that crabs are a part of the CUC, but I can't figure out if this guy would be ideal for my tank. Does anybody have an opinion they are willing to share?

Also- my husband though it would be funny to put some clams in my tanks, well- they survived and it's hilarious to watch my puffer try to take on a clam, not to mention that most of them have buried themselves and only have the tubes showing. Does anyone know off the top of their head how bad the bioload on clams (regular quahogs) is, and if they could be the reason my nano is cloudy? Thank you so much, in advance, for any help that you can give me.



Oh yea, and for the time being (will probably replace with a new hood with T5 or T8 bulb) my lighting consists of a compact fluorescent from a desk lamp and an incandescent that I got with the hood, which is now totally trashed. Thanks again for any info you can give me.

 

[ktomminello]

Pictures

sorry, I forgot to post these

 

[ktomminello]

Please anybody?

 

[Convict2161]

Maybe a strawberry crab?

 

[54seaweed]

How big is it
think Dino hit it on the head
looking at this than your"s I see they look the same

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=497+501+1907&pcatid=1907

Look at those blue eyes just glaring out lol

 

[ktomminello]

Lol

It's really small, the body is about a half inch. It does kind of look like that, other than the black mouth and eyes that are like antennae that recess into the shell when it goes to sleep- also its little mouth shovels (sorry I have no clue what they are called) are hairy. Thank you for your help!!



Oh- and it does look like Dino smacked him around a bit

 

[User Name]

I just posted in your main thread. I will mention it here too. This is a female fiddler crab and they need access to dry land.

For cloudy water. How fine is the sand? Could it be sand in the water column? Do you see the surface of the sand bed moving? Might be a algae bloom? When the last time you did a water change?

 

[ktomminello]

can't be, I swear!!

I have fiddlers, too, this is definitely not a female fiddler, the legs are WAY too thick, it has a deep ocean crab build and is a daytime sand sifter who crawls into live rock crevices when the lights go out and has absolutely no interest in leaving the sand bed at all. I have a mixed dsb which includes 30-35lbs of dolomite chips, marine sand, live aragonite sand, live reef sand and crushed live rock.

 

[ktomminello]

I just posted in your main thread. I will mention it here too. This is a female fiddler crab and they need access to dry land.

For cloudy water. How fine is the sand? Could it be sand in the water column? Do you see the surface of the sand bed moving? Might be a algae bloom? When the last time you did a water change?

My sand bed moves all the time, I have a ton of bristle worms, sea sponges, a few clams, tube worms of all sorts, calc worms, etc. I've even found a sea slug. I believe I'm just near the end of a mini cycle- I just added crushed live rock and 40lbs of aqua cultured rock along with a couple dead live rocks from my puffer tank to leech into...

 

[MacDracor]

I don't know much about crabs (except that they are never allowed in my reef) but clams are filter feeders and will do more cleaning than clouding. The problem is that they need pretty mucky water in order to not starve.

 

[ktomminello]

This is what he is

I was told by the person that cultivated the rock that he thinks that it is this christmas island red crab...

 

[User Name]

I suggest looking at the eyes of the red crab from Christmas Island in the picture you provided, and compare against the eyes of the unidentified crab in your aquarium. Do you notice the eye stalks are completely different? Now compare the eye stalks against a fiddler crab. Exactly the same. Also, i have never heard of a red crab from Christmas island hitching a ride on live rock. While, i have heard and read of instances of fiddler crabs hitching a ride on live rock. I would suggest clicking on google image, and type in "hitchhiking fiddler crab". You will see a couple of examples that look the same as your unidentified crab.