Soft Coral Crab from Bali

If you know which species this little crab is please let me know.

Ignore the shrimp, that's just his lunch.

Where was it shot Brian?

As I state in the title, it's from Bali. To be more precise "Coral Garden", Tulamben.

To me it looks like a Quadrella sp.

Nice behavior shot! Was it eating that shrimp for a long time?

Cheers

Daniel

To me it looks like a Quadrella sp.

 

Nice behavior shot! Was it eating that shrimp for a long time?

 

Cheers

 

Daniel

Quadrella species was one of my thoughts too, but there are a lot of differences between it and the coral crabs you see in hard coral colonies.

It was dragging the shrimp about the soft coral and nibbling on it. I'm not sure if it caught the shrimp or just found it dead somewhere, as it had the shrimp when I first saw it. I went back to the same area the following day with a friend so that he could get photographs of the crab, but there was no sign of the shrimp. I guess the crab had eaten what he wanted and discarded the rest.

I think is Quadrella granulosa.

I also have a photo from this crab, in Walea, Indonesia.

Best regards,

Tigershark

Your photo looks like the same crab but I am not sure about it being Quadrella granulosa, because according to the Ferrari book, Quadrella granulosa is found in male-female pairs and living exclusively in association with Antipathes black coral colonies. Whereas both of our crabs are in Dendronephthya soft corals, plus I'm sure the size was bigger than 2cm. However Quadrella species looks good for shape.

I think it's Q. coronata which is the senior synonym of Q. granulosa. The photograph of the crab listed as Q. granulosa in the Ferraris' book appears to be Q. maculosa. 5 out of the 6 known species inhabit antipatharians along with alcyonaceans & gorgonians; the 6th, Q. boopsis lives on dendrophyllid & other ahermatypic corals.