ID Needed, Good or Bad

Hi all
Had this hitchiker free with my live rock a couple of days ago, he only comes out at night so when the lights were off out he come and i flicked them on quick managed to get a pic of him as he stood there stunned,is he goody or baddy, he lives in the rock and when he goes back to bed would you believe he pulls the loose rock back in with him and seales his cave, brilliant???



Can't really see in the pic but he is purple in colour with red eyes, and looks to have a kind of suede material body???

 

Looks like a chitton.

 

Its not a chitton it is a crab of some kind?

 

are you shure it isn't green almost resembles an emerald crab very good algae eaters but hard to tell with the coloring in the pic

 

QUOTE "Similarly like limpets, a strange mollusc called chiton lives at rocky sea shores, mostly at places which are exposed to considerable turbulence. It is not a snail - instead, it forms a group of its own within the Phylum Mollusca, called the Class of Polyplacophora. This strange animal has an armor-plated back as a protection against the sea or other dangers, which is formed by eight flexibly jointed, shell-like plates, instead of just one shell."

Chitons

ChitonCompF

Jim

 

Not green at all , Dark purple, with red devil eyes lol, i was thinking emerald or porcelain crab also, but i no expert, only comes out at night?
Not a chitton either this crab has six/eight legs, 2 eyes, walks sideways etc etc...

 

Now you say its a crab- i can see the eyes and claws!!

Welcome to Saltcorner.

This site has a rather large animal library!!

 

Now that crab is mentioned with red eyes. I looked at it closer and enlarged it, thats a gorilla crab. Yank that out of there ASAP.

 

Hi Geek why yank it out m8 i take it's a baddy, why???

 

DESTROY if you want anything but that crab in yer tank.