are brain coral holes bad???

[joelbegt]

I got a brain coral the other day and i realized today that it has about 3 small holes about 1/4". i saw some weird looking things moving around in these holes. i also found something that lives in a pod like hole with a cap over its hole. the thing with the cap looks much bigger. is this bad? if so how do i get rid of these? thx for any help

 

[fierceseaman]

search is your friend, there have been several posts about symbiotic crabs that live in brain corals. check out gall crabs with the search function.

 

[louist]

I posted about mine a while back but don't remember the thread (and search isn't working atm), but here are the photos.

These photos have been sent to the invert experts at the Museum of Victoria for ID, but they haven't got back to me yet.

 

[joelbegt]

i just got windows vista so im still trying to figure out how to search just this site. I did search the internet and finally came up with a couple cases of similar inverts. my coral was receeding so im going to attempt to extract it soon(recommended by the site if coral is receeding). after reading about them i learned that some burrow deep and the coral will grow around them. others are just harmless. i think the 2 smaller holes are connected deep into the coral. the larger "pod dwelling" one seems to be a quite different.

Louist - it will be interesting to see what they say about the lil bugger in your coral.

thx for the help you 2

 

[fierceseaman]

no problem, hope you get it out of there

 

[fierceseaman]

no problem, hope you get it out of there