Found what was eating my coral! Need an ID!

[Reeftanker3295]

Came home tonight and turned on the lights to my biocube and see this little guy eating my clove polyps!! This was my most succesful coral by far, and over the last couple of weeks about a hundred polyps have gone missing, i thought it was the cyano strangling the coral from having any light but i found this dude on the coral eating it! Took him out and he's with my baby kingfish and eel right now. He burrowed right into the sand. ID please? ( you can see in the pictures that he has a chunk of polyps and he's eating them! )

[reefandfish]

look here http://www.chucksaddiction.com/hitchcrabs.html

[Reeftanker3295]

Thanks, looks like a xanthid crab... My colony already looks better today since it isnt irritated, hopefully it grows back quick

[luther1200]

He probably lived on the colony when you bought it. I was at the LFS once and they got a Xenia colony with what they called a Xenia Crab. But it wasn't harmful, it was similar to an Acro Crab. But I guess you weren't that lucky,lol. At you you got him out of there now.

[Reeftanker3295]

Nah i got the colony a month after i got the tank, it was an amazing colony, got it for 15 bucks for about 300 polyps, it spread all over the tank, the whole 5x5 rock was COVERED in sponges and polyps but over the last couple weeks this thing ate alot, probably 200 polyps in all... Really stinks...

[Loverotties]

Sounds good!