mvallee
Non-member
I had one of my acropora that was doing really well suddenly start what I thought was bleaching out, it was strange the way it was though because it was only sections and low an behold with a flashlight in the middle of the night found an emerald crab sitting on it munching away, reached in and had to pull the whole coral out to get him but he is my sump now. I still have one more emerald I bought in there but have not seen it in a while so hoping it is fish food.
Now onto the other crab, this one was a hitchiker and showed up on my gatorade birds nest. now this is the first coral I would say has grown from a frag to a mini colony so lots of branches and one day I saw the skin moving, I added a little food and saw this little hairy orange arm come out and the whole thing start moving. I thought I had an acro crab until I noticed some of the interior branches and base stripped to bare white this week. A couple minutes on google and very sure I have Cymo andreossyi.
My plan today is to pull out the colony which is glued to my rockwork so there will be damage and get him off. From what I read it is going to be very difficult so hopefully I can get it off and still have the coral in one piece.
He is a very cool looking crab, covered in what looks like orange hair, they have the nickname teddy bear crab. and although I have yet to confirm they supposedly have blue eyes.
Anyone have any interest if I get him out alive? It would be a cool addition to a Pico tank without acro's.
Here are a couple images I found on the web.
here is one of the descriptions I found; "Very common and is considered a coral symbiont, with the caveat that such symbiosis are a trade off between the coral and the crab, the coral gains protection and house cleaning services while giving up a few polyps, mucus and captured/settled food particles in exhange for those services. A healthy coral should have no problem repairing or replacing lost polyps, but again, in an aquarium environment, an eye should be kept on the coral for excessive damage being done due to the coral being unable to recover as fast or faster than the damage being done by the crab."
Now onto the other crab, this one was a hitchiker and showed up on my gatorade birds nest. now this is the first coral I would say has grown from a frag to a mini colony so lots of branches and one day I saw the skin moving, I added a little food and saw this little hairy orange arm come out and the whole thing start moving. I thought I had an acro crab until I noticed some of the interior branches and base stripped to bare white this week. A couple minutes on google and very sure I have Cymo andreossyi.
My plan today is to pull out the colony which is glued to my rockwork so there will be damage and get him off. From what I read it is going to be very difficult so hopefully I can get it off and still have the coral in one piece.
He is a very cool looking crab, covered in what looks like orange hair, they have the nickname teddy bear crab. and although I have yet to confirm they supposedly have blue eyes.
Anyone have any interest if I get him out alive? It would be a cool addition to a Pico tank without acro's.
Here are a couple images I found on the web.
here is one of the descriptions I found; "Very common and is considered a coral symbiont, with the caveat that such symbiosis are a trade off between the coral and the crab, the coral gains protection and house cleaning services while giving up a few polyps, mucus and captured/settled food particles in exhange for those services. A healthy coral should have no problem repairing or replacing lost polyps, but again, in an aquarium environment, an eye should be kept on the coral for excessive damage being done due to the coral being unable to recover as fast or faster than the damage being done by the crab."
