What is this new devilry?

[shawn]

Notice the difference between the claws on the "devil" crab and the "gorilla" crab. The gorilla crab has claws that come to a sharp point, tailored for tearing into something and injuring it. The devil crab has a much more flat profile to the claw - more likely for manipulating food to it's mouth. The devil crab actually looks a lot like a porcelain crab, if you ignore the eyes and the dark, eery, color! It's cool enough that you may want to hold on to it for the novelty, unless you hear for certain it is a problem for your tank.

 

[Moe_K]

The way his claws tuck right into his body reminds me of a common (but gorgeous) reef crab we saw at night in Hawaii. That crab we called the seven-eleven crab. It was pink with big dark purple polka-dots.
If it is anything like the seven-eleven crab, it'll get pretty big and consistently rearrange your rockwork.

 

[Moe_K]

Nah, my memory is faulty. The claws on the seven-eleven are much more serious:

 

[Greg Hiller]

There are so many species of crab it's really pretty hard to say whether any particular crab that you might not be able to id will be a problem or not. Dr. Ron would likely tell you just about any crab is a problem (he even hates....I should say considers them not to be truely reef-safe...blue-legged hermits). If you see some corals looking ragged and you suspect the little guy it probably would not be that hard to remove him.

 

[Scuba_Dave]

Here is a pic of the one I had

 

[smcnally]

I take what Dr Ron says with a grain of salt. I know he knows his stuff...But he is a little too "High and mighty" for me. I've seen some pictures that I know he knew what it was, but he would state it was just not clear enough to tell. I really like his invert book, and believe he knows his stuff, but as a person, don't like him much at all. When my hippo was sick, I asked him about it and he locked the thread right away saying it was in the wrong forum. He could have at least asked me to post it in another forum, or moved it.

 

[synchiropi]

Hey Scuba, how big did that crab get to be? It does look very similar to the evil crab.

Moe, this crab does also seem to rearrange some of the rockwork.

I am very excited to have this little guy. He has behaved very well so far so he is a really welcomed, unexpected addition to my tank

 

[Scuba_Dave]

I think he was maybe 1.5" acroos. I actually had a 2nd one too - I thought he was dead.I picked up a sump from Inland Reef when they closed, drove home - sump was cold - put it in the basement. About 2 hours later I found the crab. I put him in my tank, thought he was dead, so I went to take him out & he grabbed me!!
Talk about survival, it was out of water for over 4 hours, maybe longer, and VERY cold.
Never saw him bother any corals, snails, hermits or anything. I saw him picking at algae on the rock all the time