Tiny crab protects corals

[Jan]

http://news.mongabay.../1023-ucsb.html

Edited January 26, 2012 by Jan

[Coral Hind]

Those crabs are great! When I had AEFW a couple years ago the only colonies that were clean were the ones that those crabs were in them.

 

Beware that there are other similarly sized crabs that are darker with black tipped claws, blue/green eyes, and they don't have the line across the face like the good guys. These crabs actually eat the tissue from the acros.

[dave w]

Good article and very informative.

[Jan]

I found one. Where can I get more?

[davelin315]

Liveaquaria sells them but rumor has it that they only inhabit a specific type of coral. One of the problems is that often if you buy an aquacultured coral they are in there but when you dip if you aren't looking for them and removing them, you're killing them. I don't agree with what Liveaquaria does with removing them and then selling them, I think they should remove them, treat the corals, then put the crabs back in and sell them with the coral they came with. I believe that some aquarists and researchers have experimented with whether they move from one coral head to the other and found that they did not move and were specific to one type of coral. I believe that they also feed off the coral slime as well but all of this could just be conjecture as I can't remember if I read it or just discussed it with people as a possibility. In my own experience with these, when I tried to move one from a coral head to another, it jumped ship. They also didn't transfer from one to the next in my aquarium when I lost a coral and tried to put them into a neighboring one.

[Coral Hind]

Mine move around form coral to coral freely. When I dip I use a small net and quickly remove them from the bottom of the bucket before they get killed.

 

 

[Jan]

That's how I found this one. I dipped and it fell off a colony. I scooped it up and placed it on a pocillopora colony. Then it made it's way to an acropora nana on the other side of the tank. It's very tiny.

 

Mine move around form coral to coral freely. When I dip I use a small net and quickly remove them from the bottom of the bucket before they get killed.

 

 

[Der ABT]

Go to fins and feathers, ask sean to save you one or so...they usually come in on his colonies when he gets a shipment but often come off in the dips.

 

I got mine from there and he been in the same colony for about 2 years now...cool little guy

here is mine

 

[Reefoholic]

Anyone ordering any of these guys? I would like to get one or two. They look awesome!

[beatle]

That's pretty neat. Zoomed in they sort of resemble the emerald crabs that ate my frogspawn and hammer corals.

[Matt LeBaron]

Was at House of Tropical in Glen Burnie today and maybe because of this thread or just some dumb luck I actually noticed two of these little guys on corals there today. Took pictures with my phone, neither of the corals looked super healthy or I may have considered picking them up.

 

 

[Der ABT]

wooo those are the wrong crabs....the bandit ones like im my pic are good

anything furry or with red eyes is bad and is eating the coral..which looks like the case in those pics

 

you want smooth and a black band accross the eyes

[davelin315]

wooo those are the wrong crabs....the bandit ones like im my pic are good

anything furry or with red eyes is bad and is eating the coral..which looks like the case in those pics

 

you want smooth and a black band accross the eyes

Was going to say the same thing - those look more like the reason those corals are suffering, or at least are contributing to it.

[Coral Hind]

Yeah, that is a bad crab for sure. That base looks like the coral came from Kupang and they normally have the blue/green eyed bad crabs.

 

I was in a MD store last week and I had to point out to sales guy that they had both Monti eating nubibranch and Acro eating crabs.

[roni]

I miss these. They were very common back in the days when colonies were typically brought in but rarely see them now. Finally have one from a small colony that banky gave me.

[steveoutlaw]

Anyone know if they will reproduce if you have multiple crabs in the same tank?

[Matt LeBaron]

Haha, well that doesn't surprise me. I buy dry goods there all the time because it is close but their Saltwater live stock almost always looks iffy and a lot of their tanks are not well taken care of.

 

Does explain the look of those poor corals though.

[Coral Hind]

Anyone know if they will reproduce if you have multiple crabs in the same tank?

I had at least twenty in my tank a couple years and I did see them spawn at night but never saw any babies grow up. The females would climb to the tips of the corals and flap the undersides to release the babies. Just like the cleaner shrimp that were in the tank. I'm guessing if you were to collect the babies you might be able to raise them similar to the shirmp.

[davelin315]

Anything will reproduce pretty much, it's just a question of whether it's viable or not. Crabs typically have a pelagic stage so they don't end up living long. I don't know how long it is before these settle, but it's kind of like shrimp - if you've got them they're probably reproducing but the chances of them surviving is pretty slim.

[Coral Hind]

Haha, well that doesn't surprise me. I buy dry goods there all the time because it is close but their Saltwater live stock almost always looks iffy and a lot of their tanks are not well taken care of.

 

Does explain the look of those poor corals though.

 

The next time you are in there you may want to nicely let them know what they have. It would not only help them but also the person that my buy that coral.

[Matt LeBaron]

I'll give it a go next time I'm in.

 

I've said things about sick fish there before and I don't get the impression they care much unfortunately. I think what finally made me give up a bit is when I was there with my wife and a tang was laying sideways on the bottom of the tank, not looking real good, fast breathing, poor color, and the whole sideways thing. A nearby employee said something along the lines of "Ah he's fine" and then proceeded to stick his hand into the tank and tap the tang, at which point it scooted across the tank quickly and for at least a while was upright. A couple of months later they had something like 20+ juvenile seahorses in a tank full of Aiptasia, I again mentioned the fact that they should probably move the little guys to a different tank as they are likely to get stung to death. They stayed in that tank until they either sold them all or more likely in my opinion they all died.

 

Not a whole lot of quality LFS's around Baltimore unfortunately. The Aquarium Depot in Randallstown is already for fresh water but very little as far as saltwater goes and a poor dry goods selection. There's another pet store in Columbia that I am blanking on the name of and they have a good but small selection there. Got an excellent Pipe Organ coral there that is now loving life in my tank.