Good or bad crab?

[TWallace]

Here he is still inside the coral. He's about dime sized.

Here's the acro I found him in.

I'm pretty sure this is a gorilla crab but I'd like confirmation. I have read that gorilla crabs will eat the flesh of various corals, particularly SPS. I have had 2 small monti frags die in the last few weeks for unknown reasons, and I'd like to know if this little fella could have caused it. At first I thought I was lucky and had an acro crab, but the black tipped claws, hairy legs and blue eyes say otherwise.

 

[mark peacock]

Hi cannot think of the name of the crab but i had one and all it did was eat my large toad stool coral i would say you need to get rid may be some one else can conferm this.

 

[NaH2O]

That carb is obviously very different than the masked acro crabs. My vote is removing him, and either banishing to the sump, or finding someone with a mantis that could use it for food. Some folks find this same type of crab in their acros, and leave them. Based on the claws in the picture, I'd get rid of it.

 

[krisfal]

Those eyes look evil! I have always heard fuzzy crabs were bad.

 

[EZReefer]

Black tips on the end of pinchers = Mr ,Bad Boy,,,

 

[spongebob lover]

he might be bad but hes kind of cute

 

[Herefishyfishy]

Very cute, but does NOT belong with corals.

http://www.tbsaltwater.com/thepackage/watchout.html

 

[EZReefer]

he might be bad but hes kind of cute

Yea,,,,Sump him

 

[TWallace]

Thanks all. He's currently in a fish net which is hanging in my refugium. I may just release him into the refugium when I get home. He is pretty neat looking and I'd rather not kill him. I'm rather surprised he's there in the first place. I have a melanurus wrasse and a juvenile red coris wrasse which I thought would have killed little guys like this. I haven't added live rock in 2 and a half years, so this little fella must been with me a long time.

 

[Herefishyfishy]

Might have even come in as zooplankton (tiny juvi)