acro crab ID, good or bad?

rajkovich207 · Jan 13, 2013

so we got this mariculture acro from the LFS and while inspecting after dip, we found this little guy. there is no visable tissue damage where he was and from what I have gathered, he seems like a good crab. But I really wanted to get a few more oppinions before he goes back in the tank. ATM he is hanging out in a fish acclimation box. as you can tell he is super small, so it was a bit hard to get a decent pic. he is like a greyish brown with black stripes on him, claws and i believe eyes are both black. and his shell looks smooth. TIA!

Russellaqua · Jan 13, 2013

You're wee-beasty looks like this one to me:

This crab is Chlorodiella cytherea. This may not be your exact species, but they look very much alike to me. It's a xanthid and they typically spell trouble.

rajkovich207 · Jan 13, 2013

Well I just found a small Teddy bear crab in my tank now.. that marks number 3 for the bad crabs. To bad we never get cool hitch hickers... lol thanks for the info

Reef Fever · Jan 13, 2013

Crab Hitch Hikers

definitely looks like a xanthid..possibly even a mithrax

User Name · Jan 13, 2013

Not an emerald crab. Russellaqua has the right of it. It's a crab in the Chlorodiella genus. The typical acro crabs are crabs in the Cymo genus (bad), Tetralia genus (good), and Trapezia genus (good). Chlorodiella genus is in the Xanthidae family. I have read multiple posts of these guys hitching a ride on sps corals. These guys are not the typical acro crabs you hear about. I have never read of any damage they have caused. I'm not sure if this specific Chlorodiella species are found in these colonies because they are young/small and use the colony as a safe haven/food source and move on to live rock as they get larger (if they get larger). Or if they actually live in the coral for their whole life like an acro crab. Most reefers remove the crab to be safe. However, curiousity has me wondering.