Emerald Mithrax Crabs

[AirRazr]

I just ordered several inverts from eTropicals.com. 2 of them were Emerald Mithrax Crabs. When I pulled the bag out of the box, I see not 2 but 3 crabs in there. 1 is a beautiful shade of green, the other 2 are more "peach colored". I thought the name, "Emerald" meant green. Can they be other colors aside from green or did I get some other type of crab?

 

[AirRazr]

anyone have any advice?

 

[Hara]

They can be a different color

 

[dralarms]

They can be different colors for sure but I got a stupid rock crab in my order, ate a fish and at least 1 snail before I figured it out.

 

[spoonmerlin]

The claws should have a little suction cup looking part on both sides that it uses to grab algae. I have dark red and green ones (dark green to a pale green).

 

[ReefGuru]

Mithrax crabs come in two different types from the caribean. Mithrax Sculptis, and Mithrax Rosaceous. A lot of people do not agree with me on this site, but I can show you the scientific data anaylsis we performed in Jamaica 4 years ago, that demonstrated that the Mithrax sculptis (the green kind), feeds primarily on algae and small inverts. The rosy ones (Mithrax rosaceous) tend to on the other hand have a lot of fish pieces in their stomach upon dissection. They should be ok when they are small, but as they age, they will get quite bad. I hope I can help.

 

[seafan]

I've seen many different shades of Mithrax crabs, they can be from lime green to very dark brown with only a hint of green.

P.S They are good florida pompano/permit bait.