Crab Living in acropora
 

Hello all

I added yesterday my first colony of acropora, it is my first atemp to keep sps corals, it is a brown acropora, I just found a crab living inside de acropora and I'm worried because I don't know if this little guy is safe for the acro or not. what I'm sure is that it is not a porcelain crab.

I could not get a clear picture for the id, but it is a small brown hairy crab it looks like it mimics the acropora polyps.

Please advice

probably an acrocrab - no problem. Pics would help.

Typically hairy=bad, I would get him out and in the fuge until you can get a pic for sure. Here are soem "coral crabs"

[url]http://home2.pacific.net.ph/~sweetyummy42/coral_crabs.html[/url]

ebm

Look I found a picture for an acropora and crab that are very similar to mine.

[IMG]http://bp2.blogger.com/_Vxu_tx5NynY/RnasyWSxIxI/AAAAAAAABFQ/mCDM3zgHiP0/s1600-h/070618rlhg0712m6.jpg[/IMG]

[url=http://bp2.blogger.com/_Vxu_tx5NynY/RnasyWSxIxI/AAAAAAAABFQ/mCDM3zgHiP0/s1600-h/070618rlhg0712m6.jpg]Picture[/URL]

Not sure why the image didn't post. I would still try to get a pic to make sure it's a reef safe crab.

There is a picture here [url]http://bp2.blogger.com/_Vxu_tx5NynY/RnasyWSxIxI/AAAAAAAABFQ/mCDM3zgHiP0/s1600-h/070618rlhg0712m6.jpg[/url]

I think that is a bad one.

If its a crab and its hairy - whip it out. Its not worth the risk in keeping it.

One pic I found hairy coral crab says one claw should be larger than the other for i.d. It says these crabs shouldn't be removed,they don't damage the host and are totally dependent upon it for their survival. Thats from The Modern Reef Aquarium (Fossa & Nilsen) I'd watch it at night see if it moves off the host to hunt. Looks cool though

I have never unserstood peoples fears about acro crabs and how they will terrorize their tanks. I have read study after study on how they are beneficial by keeping the detritus from settling into the coral.


Keep it. It's a nice little bit of diversity for your reef.

[QUOTE][i]<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11532020#post11532020 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Lordhelmet [/i]
[B]I have never unserstood peoples fears about acro crabs and how they will terrorize their tanks. I have read study after study on how they are beneficial by keeping the detritus from settling into the coral.


Keep it. It's a nice little bit of diversity for your reef. [/B][/QUOTE]
Acro crabs are fine and good to have in a reef. Acro/Coral/fish eating crabs are not for obvious reasons.

I had one living on a bit of acro and it was fine then one day it was gone and i never seen it again

Yeah thats a bad one you should remove it and trash it or put it in someones fuge if it makes you feel better.
I thought the same as Lordhelmet that everyone was full of it when it came to these guys until a week ago when I noticed one in an acro and he ate a lot of the center branches tissue! you couldnt see it toogood but once I pulled the coral and saw him down in the cener of all the damage I got rid of him.

The coral is fine now and will probably re-grow over the damage but I would have lost the acro if I left the crab in there.
C

Well let me tell you that last night I could not get a good sleep, so I went to take a look at the tank with only the actinics powered on. And there he was in a branch grabbing and eating, grabing and eating, and not detritus he was scraping for the acropora tissue I can tell because I saw it with a magnifying glass

So I took the acropora out of the tank and removed the crab and lucky me that I saw another but very very little one that was there also.

there is some damaged tissue that I hope it recovers, as a preucation I dip the acropora in Tech-D to avoid further infections

Thanks for your answers