White Crab in Kenya Tree

Devilfish

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Hi everyone. I found this white crab in a recently purchased Kenya Tree. It had been dipped in KCL so I don’t think it came in on the coral. I just saw movement and looked around. Any idea what it might be? I saw a similar sized body in the sand from TBS that may have been a molt. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Edit-I did find an albino crab on the TBS website but there isn’t a lot of information and it isn’t clear if this is the same thing. It is about the size of a pencil eraser and has a pretty round body.

IMG_3210.jpeg IMG_3211.jpeg IMG_3208.jpeg IMG_3209.jpeg
 
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ISpeakForTheSeas

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Thanks. Do you by any chance know the scientific name? I haven’t been able to find any information other than what is on the TBS website. #ispeakfortheseas do you know?
I'm not sure, but my first thought would be a pea crab of some kind (for what it's worth, it doesn't have the black tipped class of the TBS albino crab):
This is quite interesting - I would guess it's a pea crab of some variety (probably from the Pinnotherinae subfamily), as they're known to live with a variety of host critters; they typically live with bivalves, but they have been known to branch out heavily including to gastropods (snails).

Some are considered commensal while others are parasitic (to my currently somewhat limited knowledge on it, the parasitic ones feed on the host while the commensal ones don't) - they basically live on the gills of the snail.

I wouldn't expect too many issues from the crab, but given that it might be parasitic, you may want to try and remove it if possible.
 
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Devilfish

Devilfish

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I'm not sure, but my first thought would be a pea crab of some kind (for what it's worth, it doesn't have the black tipped class of the TBS albino crab):
Thanks for the info. For now I have put it in the sump. I’ll try and get some better photos, see how large it grows, and try and narrow it down a little farther. I find all the little life that you don’t notice until you sit down and really watch for movement so interesting. Thanks again.
 

vetteguy53081

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I thought pinnotheridae crab at first but think its more a a Zanthidae crab known as Jonesius triunguiculatus (trapizae)
 

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