What kind of crab is this

[bossman818]

Reef safe? Should I keep it?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Reef safe? Should I keep it?

Hairy with black claws no good and likely a member of the Xanthidae family which is very undesirable. Please post future pics under white light intensity for clear i.d.
Could be actual gorilla crab

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Reef safe? Should I keep it?

Any chance you could get some pics of it under white light? Straight-on pics of the top and of the face/claws are helpful for crab ID.

 

[bossman818]

This thing scared the crap out of me. It was under my hammer coral.

 

[JoJosReef]

That looks like an emerald crab to me. Got its claws tucked in well, though. How do the claws look? Sharp and pointy or blunt-ended/spoon-shaped?

 

[Baronen]

Kinda just looks like an emerald with an old shell but I am no crab man so will let the experts chime in

 

[littlefoxx]

I think thats an emerald. I love emeralds! But vetteguy is right, if it does have black pointy claws then its bad! Lol but I think this one is a good crab

 

[vetteguy53081]

This thing scared the crap out of me. It was under my hammer coral.

With better light may very well be emerald - member of mithrax group in which I dont trust them around coral but can be good algae feeders

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

This thing scared the crap out of me. It was under my hammer coral.

Yeah, that's an Emerald Crab or close relative - they're just about as reef-safe as crabs get, but they (particularly the male crabs) can sometimes stop being reef-safe when they get larger.

So, mostly reef-safe, and lots of people buy them on purpose, but you may have different results with individual crabs.

 

[bossman818]

Hopefully these are better. I want to make sure he does not eat my coral.

 

[JoJosReef]

Hopefully these are better. I want to make sure he does not eat my coral.

Without the certainty of a DNA test, you can be certain that's an emerald crab. See above comments about reef-safeness.