I have a Halloween hermit crab that is eating the polyps out of one of my acro's. Seriously. I've recently started up a frag tank and everything is much more available to any of the typically rock dwelling critters if they want to make the short climb on to the frag rack. I was out of town earlier this week and when I came home, the lights were off but I could see a bunch of little white spots on my 'blue smurf' acros. At the time I didn't notice the Halloween hermit crabs that was hanging around. The next morning I went to survey the damage and noticed the crab clinging to one of the frags like it's life depended on it. The damage was centered around every polyps so I had my suspicions...
I pulled the crab off and set him over on the rock thinking it might be a fluke or coincidence. I've always thought Halloween crabs were similar to blue legs in that they were reef safe. I've always argued that most of the "hermit crab eating coral" tales were a result of a sick coral and the hermit scavenging what was already on the way out. So, I decided to run a test. I put the damaged frags in the very front left and left the whole one's towards the rocks. I watched the crab all day yesterday and he didn't make any moves towards the corals and I started thinking about what else it could be. Fast forward to this morning and the crab is back at it, clinging to one of the "good" frags with the resulting damage seen in the attached picture. The perp has now been moved to the sump and will spend the rest of his life in the penalty box crawling around the live rock and detritus that collects down below.
I pulled the crab off and set him over on the rock thinking it might be a fluke or coincidence. I've always thought Halloween crabs were similar to blue legs in that they were reef safe. I've always argued that most of the "hermit crab eating coral" tales were a result of a sick coral and the hermit scavenging what was already on the way out. So, I decided to run a test. I put the damaged frags in the very front left and left the whole one's towards the rocks. I watched the crab all day yesterday and he didn't make any moves towards the corals and I started thinking about what else it could be. Fast forward to this morning and the crab is back at it, clinging to one of the "good" frags with the resulting damage seen in the attached picture. The perp has now been moved to the sump and will spend the rest of his life in the penalty box crawling around the live rock and detritus that collects down below.
