Flourscent Green Lobster

[zulu_principle]

Pulled out a mother colony today and found a flourscent Green Lobster.

Before I start doing some research to see if hes a bad or good boy, anyone had one before ?

Thanks


Wendell

PS If I can find him tomorrow will try to post pics

[Aquattro]

size? more details? I had a green shrimp in a colony...crinoid snapping shrimp. Cool dude!!

[zulu_principle]

Id say around 2 cm.

Remember that colony that I wouldnt let you or adam take a frag of, he was in there.

Whole body green, two pinchers.

Havent even looked at books.

[Aquattro]

sounds bigger than the one I have. If I had taken that colony out, I might have seen and identified the critter :wink:

[Beverly]

Pulled out a mother colony today and found a flourscent Green Lobster.

Here's a photo of what I initially thought was a lobster, then thought it was a nasty manits, found in our acro:

http://www.lostmymarblz.com/42gal-alpheidshrimp.htm

Turns out someone here ID-ed it as a harmless alpheid shrimp. It makes loud snapping noises when disturbed.

We actually do have a 1.5" bright orange lobster in our 42 gal that had been in our 7 gal for 7 months. Don't have any photos of the little guy as we only see him briefly when it's feeding time. Hadn't done any damage to corals or fish that I could tell in the time he was in the 7 gal. And in that tiny space, I'd have noticed any problems.

In the 42, I can't even find him anymore as there are numerous holes he could be using as his hideout.

[Quinn]

i would be concerned about how big these guys get. the larger reef lobsters that you can get can quickly take over a tank. dez knows a girl in edmonton who has one that's about a foot long, it's the only citizen of her reef. it didn't start out that way.

[Beverly]

i would be concerned about how big these guys get.

In the 8 months we've had it (came in as a hitchhiker on a very porous piece of rock), it's barely grown. Seen it molt twice, though. But from the way I observe it eating, it'll be a long time before this little lobster ever gets big. I'm sort of thinking it's a dwarf species, but only time will tell.

[zulu_principle]

Thats him.

Thanks for the help.

[Van down by the river]

Reef_Raf nailed it, It's harmless Zulu.

Although a few species can be 5-8cm, most are under 3cm. As they have poor eyesight, and some are blind, they tend to be reclusive and shy. No bold cleaners in this family!

In the wild they are found within sponges, ascidians, corals and sandy/muddy/rubble bottoms often found living comensally with gobies. They excavate the burrow while the goby maintains "watch", the shrimp always keeping it's antennae touching the goby for any sign of danger.Occasionally I have found them on good live rock. Apart from the snapping sound occasionally made(mine loves to snap early in the morning,or whenever someone tries to "borrow" his burrow), they are harmless. They will also co-habitate with commensal coral crabs as well. There is between 550 and 600 species so exact id is probably not possible.

If yours is unwanted I will glady offer him a new home!!