Pleas ID this crab

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It ate your corals? I've never heard of that before.. :?

It's a pity because mine has a really cool personality and doesn't bother anything. He'll even run to the front of the tank when he sees me coming and wave his claws around frantically to get my attention :lol:
 
That's cute! hehe my CBS sorta does that sometimes. :D

Conversely, I keep a mantis in my main display and also one in the propogation tank. So in that respect you might be going "huh!?!"

each to his own annoying crustacean I guess. LOL!!!
 
Good picture! I've got the same kind of crab and he's given me no particular trouble at this time. He certainly shows no inclination to catch fish!
 
This crab is called mithrax rosaceous. It is very closely related to the mitrax sculptis which is safe and useable for elimination of volonia algae. However, this one is an opertunistic predator, and will more than likely kill fish and inverts. Donate it to your pet store, they might like to use it as trigger food. Thats what we used to do in my pet store. Waste not want not.

Andrej
 
I'd like to hear your explanation on why you consider the green mithrax safe and not this one. They are both the same.. the red one is just as useful for eating bubble algae and is no more inclined to catch fish than the green. Pretty much ALL crabs are opertunistic, otherwise they would be useless as a cleanup crew.
 
I have used the green mitrax crab many times, and had many customers who have used them sucessfully in their reef tanks without a problem. I strongly disagree with a lot of people on the mitrax, because for the 2 years that I worked for Hofstra Marine Laboratory we have never seen any fish meal in the intestinal tract uppon dissection and microscopy. This is probably due to the fact that they do not get as mig as the roseceous. They get to be about twice as large and are powerful enough to take down fish. Upon dissecting them, about 1/2 to 2/3 contained fish meal.

Andrej
 
That's interesting but how does it prove that the crab caught the fish and didn't just scavenge?
 
looks like one of the crabs I got from my FL aquacultured rock. I removed them because they grow very fast. I have a green emerald that was tearing into my xenia too. He was removed.

I think I took all my crabs out except the hermits and 2 porcelin crabs. I am debating keeping then in my puffer tank since they do eat algae and they are big enough for him to not eat them yet :)
 
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