ID this giant, evil crab
 

I have had my tank set up for almost 3 years now, and since day one there has been a hairy legged crab living in my live rock. After setting up a jar with an algae wafer inside of it, I finally caught him and he is massive!

His body is about 2 inches wide, with gray-ish with bright purple spots. He has light colored hairy legs and dark eyes/pinchers.

I have had several fish disappear without a trace in my tank, and I am wondering if he is the culprit. Anyways, check out the pics and let me know if you know what type of crab this is. I don't have a sump, so I will have to dispose of him some how if he is indeed evil. :twised:

Almost looks as if the evil guy has coraline growing on him! Never seen one with the purple before. A cool looking crab but likely:

evil > cool

KILL IT :twised:

it going after the Algae wafer is probably a good sign....

What a sexy looking crab.

Maybe ship it to Lance if you're uneasy doing the evil deed. I'm sure he could drop a fan in with the poor little guy. :mrgreen:

it is a emerald crab he is good but some time goes for corals

How can you tell?

Pretty much all crabs have some evil in them. It comes out when they get hungry -and he's big enough to cause some damage, for sure.

Your call. No crabs at all is certainly the safest approach. I think they're interesting creatures and many people have them in their tanks -at least until they eat something they like more :surprise:

not sure its an emerald but it does look like some kind of mithrax crab.

After doing some research, it definitely is a Mithrax Crab. However, due to his massive size, I am not taking any chances and just dropped him off at the LFS. Thanks for the help!