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Critter Identification / Archived topic

Anemone Crab ID

Started by diver dave1 ·

  • 2Posts
  • 2Replies

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Anemone Crab ID

2 posts
  1. There were several of these little guys hiding under anemone's at Curacao last week. 20-50 ft deep, 1-2 inches across. Always seen under anemone's. All looked identical. When I got close with the red spotting light, most would scratch their right eye while watching me.

    All had matching claw colors, as shown. The legs also had this same color pattern,as you can see in the right of the photo.

    Most were shy and would scurry deeper into cover. A few rather ignored me and I got to watch them relaxing and eating for a while.

     

    I checked Humann and DeLoach and really did not find anything that seemed to match from my view.

    Hoping someone here has better ideas.

     

    6902796825_87cdfdafa8_z.jpg

  2. That's a banded clinging crab, Mithrax cinctimanus. They're commensals on several types of anenomes. The red & white tips of the claws are characteristic for the species. The rest of the body is often very heavily covered by filamentous algae which hides the banding on the legs & carapace. Here's a pic of one with a clean carapace showing the colors - http://reefguide.org/pixhtml/bandedclingingcrab3.html

    Edited by Leslie
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