Mysterious crab found at night ID???

[Herbie's Reef]

Was looking around my tank at night and found this weird looking guy. I tried to remove him after the video, he hunkered down to the rock as I tried to grab him before eventually running away. I’ve had TBS rock and sand added to my system and KP aquatics live rock too. Probably came from one of those sources? Any idea for an ID on this guy? Probably going to try and setup a trap, not in a hurry. He’s probably been in there for a while and hasn’t seemed to do anything bad… just yet.

Thank you!

 

[VintageReefer]

Video doesn’t work but that tbs rock is known for gorilla crabs. Might want to look those up and see if it’s a match

 

[Herbie's Reef]

Video doesn’t work but that tbs rock is known for gorilla crabs. Might want to look those up and see if it’s a match

I don’t think it’s a gorilla, I have loads of those in my sump rn. This one is white and bumpy with some red dots. Really strange looking, can’t find anything online matching the description. I’ll see if I can get some screenshots from the video I took.

 

[Herbie's Reef]

I couldn’t get another shot besides this and he has since run off somewhere in my tank.

 

[VintageReefer]

That doesn’t look friendly to me lol

 

[Katrina71]

Nope. Sump him. Imo

 

[VintageReefer]

Find him or the rock he’s in, put it in a bucket of freshwater. Watch. When he starts to come out capture him and put him in the sump. His life has value, but not in the display.

 

[VintageReefer]

Can you get the video on YouTube so we can see it?

 

[Herbie's Reef]

Can you get the video on YouTube so we can see it?

The video really only showed his legs slightly moving, ill try and get another video tonight if I can find him again. Not sure about the freshwater dip as the rock he is on has a lot of coral encrusted on it towards the top.

 

[VintageReefer]

The video really only showed his legs slightly moving, ill try and get another video tonight if I can find him again. Not sure about the freshwater dip as the rock he is on has a lot of coral encrusted on it towards the top.

Coral will survive a few min in freshwater

Just dip long enough to annoy crab and have him come out then use tongs or a thin screwdriver of something to flick him into the water. Then put rock back in tank, and get him in a cup of saltwater. Take some photos and put him in the sump

 

[Herbie's Reef]

I never made too much of an effort to catch him. Well recently my strawberry shortcake acro had been receding and leaving no skeleton behind. Super odd. Looking around in my tank last night I find this guy again, bigger than ever chowing down on my acros. I tried to grab him with tweezers but he quickly ran away. Hoping to catch him sometime in the near future.

 

[Reefing102]

Could try a bottle trap, or even the glass cup trap (leaning a glass cup near where you last saw him with some food in it so he can climb in but not out). This may not be doable with fish though

 

[west co reefer]

I never made too much of an effort to catch him. Well recently my strawberry shortcake acro had been receding and leaving no skeleton behind. Super odd. Looking around in my tank last night I find this guy again, bigger than ever chowing down on my acros. I tried to grab him with tweezers but he quickly ran away. Hoping to catch him sometime in the near future.

Yikes, FW dip as stated could've prevented this. Try a bottle trap by his rock

 

[Herbie's Reef]

Okay so I had tried a few traps but nothing really worked, he is too careful. The past week I have stayed up until 2 A.M. stalking my target. After failed attempts at capture he retreated for days into his cave. Finally, tonight I found him inside a coral. After removing this coral I quickly pinned him down to the rock and snatched him out of the tank! After this ordeal he was promptly thrown across the room where he lied defeated. I snapped some photos for later identification and for the record books. He has now and forever been banished to the sump realm where he will scavenge in detritus.
In other words I caught him and am pumped about it.
Here are some photos and videos of his banishment, if anyone could get an ID that would be awesome.

 

[Herbie's Reef]

Here the monster lies defeated:

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Here the monster lies defeated:

Looks like a male Xanthid crab from the subfamily Actaeinae, most likely either a Paractaea species like P. garretti, P. rufopunctata, or P. nodosa; or Pseudoliomera speciosa.

Unfortunately, I'm not sure how to differentiate them all yet. Either way, though, it's definitely not a reef-safe crab. As a side note, make sure it can't get to any power cables or other claw-able equipment in the sump - crabs have been known to cut them on occasion.

 

[crazyfishmom]

I’ve had a lot of Florida stone crabs from TBS live rock.

Here is a picture of the two largest that I’ve pulled out. The largest was 2.5-3 inches across for the carapace alone. It killed fish in my tank and hurt a lot of coral until
I was able to trap him.

I no longer consider any crab reef safe. I know that’s wrong of me. But these guys are vicious.

 

[Budman93]

Good job! lol. Kind of cool looking but yeah time to banish him to the shadow realm.

 

[Herbie's Reef]

I’ve had a lot of Florida stone crabs from TBS live rock.

Here is a picture of the two largest that I’ve pulled out. The largest was 2.5-3 inches across for the carapace alone. It killed fish in my tank and hurt a lot of coral until
I was able to trap him.

I no longer consider any crab reef safe. I know that’s wrong of me. But these guys are vicious.

Oh man, those are huge! I just saw one the other night on my other rock structure, guess that's the next crab I gotta hunt down. What size fish did eat end up eating?

 

[Herbie's Reef]

Looks like a male Xanthid crab from the subfamily Actaeinae, most likely either a Paractaea species like P. garretti, P. rufopunctata, or P. nodosa; or Pseudoliomera speciosa.

Unfortunately, I'm not sure how to differentiate them all yet. Either way, though, it's definitely not a reef-safe crab. As a side note, make sure it can't get to any power cables or other claw-able equipment in the sump - crabs have been known to cut them on occasion.

Thanks for the ID! I'll definitely be sure to get some power cables out of reach from him