Crab inside Scoly

[Mark426]

I have this tiny crab that has lived inside my Scolymia for some time now. There is a small hole in the flesh where I can see him from time to time, he is about the size of a good sized pin head. It does not seem to be causing a lot of harm to the Scoly other than the small hole. A few months ago I decided to do an iodine dip to kill the crab, thought I got rid of the little guy. The hole looked to be healing and getting smaller. BUT… he survived the dip and the hole is back to the original size.

My question…should I try to rid my Scoly of the crab? If so….how?


Mark

 

[Der ABT]

pic please

 

[Miasma_F]

There was a thread awhile back that had pictures of some awful looking parasite living inside a brain coral. Whatever it was hatched eggs and thus created more parasites. Basically was eating the coral from the inside out.

Unfortunately, I don't have the link to the thread. Hopefully someone can provide it for you. If I recall, the thread starter was able to kill the parasites after a few tries.

 

[elegance coral]

it's a gall crab. A hideous looking critter. Read the paragraph near the end. http://www.wonderbookofknowledge.com/reefcrabbehavior.php

 

[Mark426]

Thanks for the replies....think I will just let it be and keep my eye on things for now.

 

[deanos]

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1129536&highlight=GALL

 

[Mark426]

Hey...thanks for the link...quite interesting.