White hairy crab?

[bodie]

I know it's difficult to identify because I couldn't get a pic, but I found what appears to be a crab (it really looked like a tarantula spider, but was underwater) crawling on my live rock. I had never seen it before and was shocked at how big it was. The body was approximately 1 inch wide and it appeared to have 4 legs on each side. I couldn't notice any eyes on it and it was white, but looked hairy. I initially thought it was a piece of leather coral, but it was not yellow like my coral. I tried to catch it with a net, but it crawled under a rock and I never saw it again. Interestingly it was crawling right around my cleaner shrimp and neither seemed to mind each other. It definitely looked more like a large spider than anything else, but considering it was in my reef tank, I'm guessing it's some type of crab. Does anyone have any thoughts? big, white, and hairy looking. Freaky!

 

[roka64]

Did it look like this:
Google Image Result for http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/vents/nemo/explorer/bio_gallery/biogallery-ImageF.00060.jpeg

 

[Drewbie]

those are bad right?

 

[bodie]

No, the legs looked somewhat similar, but the body was more round and larger. The body was probably the size of a quarter. I was really shocked that something this big could've been crawling around for years and I had never seen it. It also looked kind of hairy. I almost thought it was some kind of weird white hair algae until I saw it crawling. And like I said, I was also sort of surprised that the cleaner shrimp and this thing were crawling on the same rock and didn't seem to mind each other...

 

[roka64]

Drewbie, yes from what I have read, sea spiders can be quite nasty.
Bodie, it's hard to tell without a pic.
Anything on this page:
Xtalreef

 

[bodie]

I agree roka64, I didn't really have high hopes considering I wasn't able to get a picture. Unfortunately, my camera battery was dead when I tried to take a picture of it. I didn't see it on Xtalreef, but it sort of resembled the "hairy crab" only alot hairy and I didn't notice any eyes. Oh well, at a minimum, I'm glad you provided the link to Xtalreef. I had never seen that site and it's been very informational. So thanks for your efforts...

 

[inetmug]

emerald crabs can get white "crusted", looks like a coat of dust

maybe this is it?

 

[SemperSaint]

This is the one I have in my tank.

 

[roka64]

Semper, that looks like a gorilla crab, possibly....

 

[pat8you]

Although it may be difficult to identify, my experience with crabs is that many if not most are going to become a problem in your tank. If it were me i would try my very best to get that thing out of there before you start seeing things disappear. Lean towards the side of caution and put it in a sump or just a bowl of tank water so you can get some pictures and figure out what it is.

All crabs go nuts for frozen food. I would try to lure it out from where you last saw it with something tasty. Some people will put some food under a tilted glass and wait.

 

[roka64]

Pat...that's food in a tilted glass..lol (not laughing at ya), so they climb in, fall to the bottom and can't get back out.

 

[SemperSaint]

I've seen him a couple of times kinda grazing on algae on the live rock. He's very small, only about the size of a nickel.

 

[pat8you]

Haha oops. what he says. I would still consider trying to get it out. Just not the way i explained. LOL

 

[Innovator]

I am envisioning the crab and have seen them plenty of times before: hairy, white, crabby XD I have never witnessed them doing any harm, but I don't trust them worth a lick either. If it's the one I'm thinking of, it'd actually make a nice dedicated nano animal because they are quite beautiful, even tarantula-esc

 

[smooth]

I suggest getting him out ASAP. I have been battling a similar pest for over 3 years now. He's cleaned out my tank 3-4 times in excess of a few thousand dollars of livestock. I always thought I had a mantis shrimp, but I just saw him for the first time last week (assuming I don't have a mantis shrimp AND this hairy crab ). I think he ventured out for the first time because it's been over a year where I've not put anything in the tank and just let it sit. So now he's hungry and roaming.

He's also quite strong. I put a feeding stick down by the rock he hides under and I had to have a tug-o-war with him to get it back! I thought he might be a mantis shrimp because I used to hear occasional clicking in the rocks. So either I have both or this crab is unusual.

 

[juice28]

Im not a pro but it almost sounds like a spider decorator crab, I have one and he is about the size of a tarantula lol but you never see him unless he is moving around other than that he just sits curled up with pieces of trash and sponges all over his body. I havent had a problem with him attacking anything or bugging anything but i actually spot feed him every few days too...did it look like this

 

[Drewbie]

thats freaking crazy and even more crazy you target feed yours....

WTH man stab that thing

 

[juice28]

thats freaking crazy and even more crazy you target feed yours....

WTH man stab that thing

lol yea every now and then I'll give him a little chunk of shrimp, that picture is actually kind of old, he has sponges and algae and a piece of my star polyps on him lol he really looks like a small piece of LR but he doesnt bother anything. my mandarin swims all over him and actually picks the pods off of him.. the only thing that he seems to not like is my green serpent star.. but i plan on getting rid of him (the star) he is like the craken! he ate my other spiny brittle star a couple days ago...i found out after I got him that the green serpent star's are the most...non reef safe if you will of the serpent stars

 

[bodie]

I finally got a picture of the white hairy crab!

I know it's been a long time since I originally posted this topic, but I finally got a couple of pics of the hairy white crab and was hoping someone could help identify it. It's grown quite a bit and the body alone was a bit larger than a quarter. It really sort of resembles a tarantula.

I'm having a lot of trouble uploading the pics to AA so I hope this works. I resized the pic so that the file size was only 37.2kb, but for some reason when I upload it to my post the file size changes to 60.5kb. Any way, I hope this works...

 

[bodie]

I forgot to include the second pic

Here is the second pic of that I was able to get of the crab. I've only seen it a couple of times over the years and it seems to be really cognizant of my presence and hides as soon as I enter the room. I'm really concerned that it may have eaten a few smaller fish and/or crabs and a cleaner shrimp. I noticed my algae blenny sitting right next to the crab and it even brushed against the crab, but they didn't seem to bother each other, but the blenny eventually disappeared.