Tiny brown crabs in my acro????

[Ant8689]

Just noticed two seperate tiny brown crabs living in two seperate acros. They look like tiny emeralds but brown. Anyone have any idea wht they may be?? Can't get a good pic at all!!

 

[Jhoehlein]

There are a couple of different crabs that will live in branching SPS, some worse than others. Generally speaking fuzzy or hairy crabs are considered bad, while smooth crabs are considered symbiotic. All crabs will irritate and to some extent feed on the corals, though the hairy crabs have a much greater propensity to kill the corals they're living in. If you want the crab out that best way is to dip the colony in whatever coral dip you have on hand; barring that, you could try to finagle it out with a long pair of feeding tongs.

 

[Ant8689]

Yeah they are very tiny. I mean they don't bother me I think it's pretty cool how you can look in your tank and just see a new form of life. Lol. But if they r harmful that's not cool

 

[Ant8689]

Can't tell if they r hairy. In another acro a baby pinkish crab. That was before I started dipping my corals

 

[edd]

if their acro crabs, they are beneficial to the acro colony.
when i researched it, they said the crabs clean them and the ones with a crab did better than those without.

 

[Ant8689]

Nice so I may be ahead of the game I did dip both of the those corals so I wonder what they came in on. Unless the eggs were there I do not think dipping does anything to the eggs

 

[bhazard451]

If they have black tipped claws, get them out. I had a black tip that was eating my polyps. I have a bandit crab that is perfectly fine though.

 

[NYreefNoob]

no, if they are vrown and tiny they are more then likely gorilla crabs an not good
http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd7/Coralmaker/crab1.jpg

 

[Ant8689]

It kinda looks like that but it is so tiny I can't tell

 

[bhazard451]

It kinda looks like that but it is so tiny I can't tell

If in doubt, get it out.

Actually, if you don't see polyps retracting in certain areas around the crab, leave it be. If you see him starting to eat polyps, then remove him.

 

[Jan]

Acro crabs can be white with a black strip, pink and beige. Get a magnifying glass and take a closer look.

I just dols a valida that had an acro crab living in it for 2 years. there were no issues.

 

[PeteTheGreek89]

i had a bunch of them and at first they were fine but over time they started to hurt the corals so i got rid of them. some ppl say they help but they didint help me lol

 

[Aquadicted]

depends on the crab and no one has studied acro crabs so.......... no one knows the answer to this question. Unless you get lucky and find someone who had the exact same crab. But I guess we would need a picture for that right?

 

[Ant8689]

Yeah I hear ya but its a baby and its tiny cant get a good pic. Just gona keep an eye on them. They only stay on those 2 corals so if anything I would be able to remove them later hopefully

 

[Aquadicted]

just curious... whered you get the acros from?

 

[Ant8689]

Not sure. I orderd them online I did dip both of them. I forgot where I placed a few orders

 

[prattreef]

This is the most thorough image data base on the subject I know of :

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

There is a section on comensal acro crabs--these are the ones we want.

 

[Jan]

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=497+501+2914&pcatid=2914

 

[bigcapct]

It kinda looks like that but it is so tiny I can't tell

Get it out! Use tweezers, it will eventually hurt your sps. The white ones are the only ones ive ever trusted

 

[Aquadicted]

Get it out! Use tweezers, it will eventually hurt your sps. The white ones are the only ones ive ever trusted

Sir, do you know all the white acro crabs? What gives you this credibility?