Hermit crabs eating my coral

[Branespikin]

Hi - you guys think my hermit crabs are eating my chalices/favias? I recently added a bunch of snails and hermits about 2 months or so ago. The blue legged and red legged. Since then i have i seen a few of my chalices and favias receeding. I keep an eye out and always see them around or on my coral. I did also cut down on feeding because of nitrates. I hope these 50 cent crabs are not eating my hundreds of dollar coral.

 

[umar]

I don't think they eat corals, I have a few in my tank as well they like to always be around them and eat other stuff but not the corals it self. Try doing water change to bring down the nitrate if that don't work you might need to clean the send bed

 

[Odysi]

they are most likely picking on the algae growth on the coral skeletons rather then eating the corals themselves

 

[Branespikin]

I dont know. I just think its really "fishy" that since i pit them in a bunch of coral started receeding. I plucked out about 15 lastnight and put them in my sump. Its only the ones that are on the sandbed that are receeding. I got my nitrates pretty much under control. My sandbed is pretty young about 7 months i vacuumed once or twice during water change. My calcium is a bit low i didnt set mt doser up yet 320 ppm. Can it be from calcium swings?

 

[homegrowncichlid]

Crabs are not directly damaging corals, but are physically walking over them, causing corals to pull back in. They do not cause any problems to corals, but you're right, if there is enough foot traffic over the corals, the corals will spend more time closed than open. Plus if you're feeding corals directly, the crabs will grab the food from the corals, just like any fish would.

Whenever I feed my corals, and a fish comes and grabs the food, the coral pulls back in.

 

[Branespikin]

Its not that they are closing or pulling back its that heads are dying!!' My favia lost about 10 heads i noticed. My Purple urkel chalice i see rim now is decaying. !!!

 

[Reefcowboy]

How long have you had these corals in your tank? Have you changed recently anything?

 

[Branespikin]

Well pretty much a few months. My christmas favia was pretty big now i see atleast 10 heads died. I changed lights from Reefbreeder photon 48 to xr30 pros but its been before that. I did revently remove my rockwork and put in a Ceramic sculpture. I did stir up sand bed while doing so. Just noticed another favia losing a head. Going to do a water change havent in a while its got to be a month. Ill test my paramaters this week see if anything is off. Im usually ok with parametres nothing drastic. Calcium tends to drop a bit. Ph fluctuates from day 8.25 to 7.90 at night. I run reverse lights in fuge.

 

[AXsignaturecorals]

It seems you have to much change going on in your tank. Corals like stability so when you change things around corals will react to it.. some positive some negative.... im prety sure its not crab related..

 

[homegrowncichlid]

is the coral tissue peeling off the skeleton? I notice that with PO4 increases.
Or is it rotting into a slimly mess due to disease? (indirectly due to NOx nutrient build up or carbon dosing into the water)
Is it possible the new ceramic rock work is leaching some nutrient into the water?
Do you have a deep sand bed you that was stirred up, releasing sequestered nutrients?


If its due to any of the above, a full water change will fix it.

Last variable you listed was the lights, but you've ruled out light shock.

Anyway, why don't you frag a few pieces up, and share/trade it with someone (like me, in Forest hills) as insurance, and recollect it back after your tank stabilizes. I coral share with some one right now, and its paid off unless we both lose the same species simultaneously.

In the past I've also fragged damaged corals and kept them separate in the same tank, with limited success.

 

[Branespikin]

Its peeling off the skeleton. My hammer got the jelly but that was definetly a disease. I stopped running rowaphos didnt see much impovement. Dosed Nopox a few weeks stopped with that. Seemed as if everything was in acceptable parameters. Maybe i did neglect the tank a bit and now im paying the consequences. Got an 8 month baby boy so hes my main focus now. Will do a big waterchange tomorrow run some test and see what happens.
Im not in the whole fragging thing. If you want to frag a piece of my favia whats left. Got some hammer to. Everything else withered away and died. I will be glad to save it and give someone else a chance. Rather have it live than die. Trade or share i dont care.