decorator crabs

[mscarpena]

SO I bought this really cool decorator crab for my 6 yr old son. It is smoking bright orange and he loves orange. I also started to buy a few corals. The very small lobo frag I bought got knocked over and damaged. A few days later I saw the crab eating part of the lobo. I figured he was eating the damaged parts and would leave it alone. So a few months later I bought a blasto frag within a few hours he ate half of one polyp. So despite what the internet says they are not reef safe and will consume LPS corals. Not just pluck one off and put it on it's back. It will actually eat it. He also filled over and ate a bunch of snails-like all of them. So he is banished to the sump.

 

[dockery07]

That is not a decorator crab - they are a drab brown and look like a big spider

 

[LeslieH]

Decorator crab is a common name used for many different species. Many are in the family Majidae, many aren't. They all attach algae, inverts, & other things to their bodies but they range in shape from round to square to triangular to spider-shaped, color varies too, as does their food preferences.