HOLY(holey)UNKNOWN CRITTER, BATMAN!

[STARFYRE]

I have a critter living in a hole in my LR. I just noticed him last night. It doesn't come completely out of the rock, so I haven't seen the whole thing. But here's what I did see....
When it came out as far as it would (I watched the hole for about an hour), it looked like a mini white starfish with hairy arms. Maybe a 1/4 inch in diameter. I counted at least 4 individual arms, but I believe there's 6.
One of the arms looked like it had a tiny claw. It would stretch the arm with the claw and pick around and retreat. It looked like the arms could bend. Not like an elbow bend at one point. More like the whole arm bends into a curve, if that makes sense?
At one point it looked like it took pairs of its legs/arms and put them together. It looked like three double arms. Similar to if you would seperate your middle finger from your ring finger, but keep the pinky next to your ring finger and the index next to your middle finger(the vulcan sign?). I apologize if this is hard to follow...I'm doing my best to describe it.
There's no way I'll be getting a picture. Even if my crappy camera could pick it up, it doesn't come completely out of the whole. And the angle it's on, I can barely see it just looking at it.
I looked up some hitchikers guides and it looks nothing like the Astrina star or however you spell it?
Anyone have an idea??

 

[Devilishturtles]

http://www.melevsreef.com/id/crawls.html

Check that site. Sounds like another brittle star or serpent star... Most don't come out of the rockwork ever and stay relatively small.

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

I agree with Devilishturtles. Does it look like the photo towards the end of this post?

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/viewtopic.php?t=89399&highlight=

 

[STARFYRE]

It's legs look a little similar, but they are much smaller, less than a 1/4 inch.

 

[Devilishturtles]

1/4 inch long, or 1/4 inch wide? It's normal for their legs to sometimes be damaged...cut off, even missing. Is that what you mean?

 

[STARFYRE]

The legs/arms are a little bigger than an 1/8 inch long. Width of the arms is probably a cetimeter. It still hasn't come all the way out of the rock. From what I can see, it looks to be a 1/4 inch in diameter (the whole thing), And it looks as though it is some type of starfish, but it doesn't move like any starfish I've ever seen. It crawls, not glides, back in the hole very fast. But for all i know the things I'm seeing could just be the teeth..LOL. Just kidding

 

[Fluff]

Would it be possible to move the rock into a better position to get a photo?

 

[STARFYRE]

There's no way my camera will pick it up. It's much too small. I'm pretty sure it's a crab. My honey and I were tank watching tonight and it started coming out of the rock.One of my astreaes were grazing near it's hole and it lunged at it, and poked it with one of it's legs. We saw a claw. From what I observed tonight, I think it's sticking the left side of it's body out of the rock. Going by what I saw, I say it's a crab. It's a dirty white color, has 4 legs on the left side of it's body and a claw. It didn't come out much further than that, so I couldn't get a good look at it's body. Approximating from seeing the left side of its body, I'd say it's in between a quarter and a half inch long. It's legs are definately hairy. Hopefully that gives a little more clarity. Now to figure out what type of crab it is, and if it's good or bad.

 

[Innovator]

If it lunged for a snail right in front of you I'd say it needs to be removed. Majority of hitchhiking hairy crabs have a negative impact imo.

 

[Fluff]

Sounds like a xanthid species crab. Definately preditory and needs to be removed. He's not much of a threat to your fish (for now) at that size but, he will do a number on your snail population, as you've already witnessed. Do a search for crab traps and you should get a ton of info on removing it.

 

[STARFYRE]

I thought about sticking a pin down in the hole, as he never comes all the way out. Do you have any links Fluff?