Good or bad crabby ?

[toyota44]

I don't have digital capability, so a description will have to work....This guy is white with purple bands on his legs.....he is also a hairy mother....he is real skittish, and last time I saw him he was poking at some egg sac looking thing (yucky!) 8O he is about 3' across.....I got him when I purchased some LR from tampa Florida....?

What is he :roll:
TIA

 

[Anonymous]

By your description I would be inclined to removed him if you can, (you could just put him in your sump to live out his days) just because some crabs can turn into such terrors that I think the best policy is to catch them if you can unless you are sure they are a benign species, like a filterfeeding crab, which it does not sound like he is. Unfortunatly color and other descriptives can vary quite a bit between members of the same species of crab, so it is really hard to id without a photo, and even with one sometimes it is hard to say for sure.

The size and shape of his claws can give you a clue what he is adapted to eat, pointy claws for tearing flesh? or the cup shaped tips of a mithrax sculptus crab's claw that are designed to grasp algae bits?