Acro crab leaving colony?

[dzhuo]

i got a small acro colony just a few days ago and there is an acro crab that came with it (more on that later). for these pass few days, the crab stayed within the colony and the coral appears to be happy.

tonight after lights off, i decided to do my usual thing and check up on the tank; i notice the acro crab is nowhere to be found within the colony. i looked to the right and found the crab have left the colony and was resting on a piece of LR. it stayed there for a minute until maybe the small light i used to observe the tank upset him, he slowly moved and jumped back to the colony.

i have heard that acro crab once found a coral seldom leaves the host colony, why do you think my acro crab was doing?

has anyone have similar experience?

is the acro crab in search for another colony? the reason i ask is because this particular acro crab wasn't originally associated with this colony. when i bought the acro, i asked the owner to give me an acro crab and he was nice enough to get me one from another different acro colony.

are acro crab known to only associate with a particular type of acros?

my tank only has one other small colony of acro, is he ready to reject both of them?

thx!

 

[SENSIREEF]

Give it time, the acro crab, will realize that this is the only acro in the tank if that is the case, if not he will find another acro that best suits his needs. If you haven’t seen him in a while, he is probably dead, or eaten. Keep in mind this is an invertebrate, very often, people don’t acclimate corals as much they would fish. So if you threw your coral in directly it could have shocked the acro crab. Also the big factor was that he was taken from his colony/home. I would be freaked out too. Give it time, time cures everything. Also provide more acros, you might have more success.

 

[blmeier7]

I imagine your crab is just checking things out to see if his old home is somewhere nearby. Once he gets acclimated he will make the new coral his home.

I have two larger SPS colonies that each have an acro crab living in them. They have been in my tank almost two years and I have never seen the crabs leave, even at night. I'm sure they do venture out at night but I have never seen them. My birdsnest colony has an acro crab and a reef lobster that both share the coral.

 

[Fishbulb2]

Mine does the same thing. I never noticed it until late last night when I was viewing the tank after lights out. The acro crab was across the tank instead of in his favorite colony. I've had him for about 6 months. My guess now is that it's probably pretty normal and that most other people just aren't checking late enough at night after lights out.
FB

 

[IPT]

You can actually purchase an Acro crab? I figured they were just obtained by buying a wild colony and having one on there.

 

[dzhuo]

i didn't technically bought it. i ask the owner to remove one from another colony and put it in the colony that i will be buying.

it seems like mine has stopped leaving. the last couple of night, he decided the best spot is still deep within the colony