Hairy Crab in our New Tank

NewSalty · #1 10-30-2011, 07:44 AM

Hi all,

New to this. We have had our live rock in our tank for about a week and have noticed just today that we have a hitchhiker (brown hairy crab). After reading many sites and blogs we decided to take rock out and flush out the little guy with cold freshwater and out he came. Is this a bad crab to have. We aren't sure what to do with him now. If he is bad how do you dispose of him. We have to go back to the store to get some things so do we take him in with us and give it to them to confirm he is indeed a bad one to have in tank?

Any help/ideas is greatly appreciated.

We also have another crab in our tank but notice that he is more like a big hermit crab (minus the shell). I will attach pic of him if I can get a good one on here.

Ugh - I can't get my pictures to compress to a smaller size (suggestions??).

Money pit · #2 10-30-2011, 08:25 AM

Sacrifice him to the porcelain god.
If it has red eyes its bad, if it doesn't its probably bad.

MMAX · #3 10-30-2011, 12:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Money pit

Sacrifice him to the porcelain god.
If it has red eyes its bad, if it doesn't its probably bad.

That being said, crabs seem to have their own personalities. We've all heard about the so called "reef safe" hermits and emerald crabs eating corals. When I first started I found the same kind of brown hairy crab in my rock. Everyone said to get rid of it but he was a model citizen. Never ate anything he wasn't supposed to, even became tame enough to take pellets from my fingers. I'm glad I didn't kill him and was a bit sad when I found him dead one morning.

BlueTang<3 · #4 10-30-2011, 02:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NewSalty

Ugh - I can't get my pictures to compress to a smaller size (suggestions??).

Use a image hosting site to upload pics eg; photobucket, image shack

NewSalty · #5 10-30-2011, 05:17 PM

Hi - Ok I think I got it now. Let me know what you all think.

bignose · #6 10-30-2011, 06:10 PM

Could be a sally light foot crab.
Personally I would get rid of it.

paddyob · #7 10-30-2011, 07:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Money pit

Sacrifice him to the porcelain god.
If it has red eyes its bad, if it doesn't its probably bad.

Yup. Flush it or take it to the LFS. They feed them to triggers.

Hairy crabs are bad.

NewSalty · #8 10-30-2011, 07:22 PM

Ok. What about the other non hairy crab that is grey in color and is more rounded in shape, that I posted a pic of? Can't seem to get a good enough one of him as he won't come our very far from his hole.

BlueTang<3 · #9 10-30-2011, 08:08 PM

That ones looks like an http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/p...628&pcatid=628

NewSalty · #10 10-30-2011, 08:28 PM

Guess what? We found another hairy crab. We took the rock out to wash him out and the rock smells like fish. It's quite gross. In that rock we also found this....!!!! What the heck is it? It's tiny and in the rock and almost looks like it has a mouth like a venus fly trap. Weird.