hitchhiker, is he safe???

[watson_barrett]

This guy rode in on a new sps colony, is he reef safe?

 

[Hilary]

Looks like a little acro crab to me.

[watson_barrett]

Looks like a little acro crab to me.

 

So i take he is safe then???

[Sikryd]

So i take he is safe then???

 

+1

 

They're fine. They can irritate the acro a little - where they make a little trail to cruise through the colony and eat food, but they help keep the acro cleaned up and are fun to watch.

[Stu]

Keep him! They are fun little guys to watch host in an acro colony.

[Hilary]

I'd put him back in his little home, and make sure that he gets tucked in before any wrasses cruise by.....

[reefhunter]

dont dip the coral in interceptor with him in there!!

[Jon Lazar]

So i take he is safe then???

 

 

 

There's an article in the Nov 2006 Journal Coral Reefs on these crabs. They're beneficial in nature, and can be found in most corals.

 

Journal Coral Reefs

[lanman]

That guy is safe - and probably helpful to your colony. I recently had one just like it in a small acro colony that died; I found him a new home - in a colony that I REMOVED a BAD acropora crab from. They are not all safe for the corals. I have had two now that ate polyps. Both of the bad ones were similar to gorilla crabs - fuzzy little things with pointy black claws.

 

I don't know about that one (I usually remove them for dipping) - but the BAD one lived through 30 minutes in Revive without any problems.

 

bob