Emerald Crab vs Gorgonian!!! Help :<

[ArtsyAxolotl]

I love my emerald but he is the biggest pain in the ***. I just caught him tipping my gorg back onto the rock and he was picking the skin off it!!!

He took an algae pellet and went back to his rock so he must've been too hungry... He at all the macro algae (I had c. prolifera which he loved eating.. and destroying), so I wouldn't be surprised if that's why he went after the gorg.I'm not worried about him doing it again now that I know to keep him fed. What I AM worried about is this gorg...

It looks like the crab might have started near the base, because all the skin is missing at the base of the gorgonian.. That's in the first picture. That's the bit I'm worried about. Will the purple skin just heal over the black base? Or is that a problem that the bottom is exposed?

The polyps are fine, they're actually out more than ever, and it went crazy when I gave it some coral smoothie earlier! It's just that I'm someone who raises plants, so my brain immediately associates the bottom with the start point. But idk if coral are like that? I just wanna make sure it's gonna be ok. Gorgonians are my favorite and I'd be so sad if this one died because of that stupid crab :|

Also the pictures are rightside up on my computer so I don't know why they uploaded sideways????

 

[Dkuhlmann]

Once Emerald crabs get large they become very destructive when they don't have enough algae to satisfy them. Best place for your EC is in the sump. Mine was caught eating a Royal Gramma where it slept. Grabbed it during the night and killed it. :hammer: So that SOB is living in my sump with all of the murderous bastard hermit crabs.

IMO and IME the ONLY good crab to keep is a Scarlet legged hermit.

 

[Dkuhlmann]

Your pictures uploaded sideways because that's how you took the pictures with your camera. This is because a PC is horizontal and not vertical. Sure your pictures are oriented correctly when viewed on another cell phone but not on a PC

If you were to turn the top of your phone to the left and take the picture, the orientation will be correct.

The same goes for taking video's with your phone. If it's top up you have skinny narrow vertical videos. If you turn the top to the left you get normal videos.

Check this out
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bt9zSfinwFA

 

[ArtsyAxolotl]

The pictures are the correct orientation on my computer though. None of my other photos taken from that angle that i've uploaded did that? Maybe I did take the picture at a funny angle though..

back on the main topic though, yes I've learned the hard way that emerald crabs are difficult little suckers. I'm keeping him fed (a quarter of an algae wafer per day) and hes a lot less destructive.

The thing I'm more worried about is the gorg... the skin doesn't seem to be growing back... I'm really worried its dying now. I really like this gorg, its probably my favorite piece in tank, and I really don't want it to die. I'm just trying to keep it fed for now. Still extends all its polyps, but the skin seems to be deteriorating around the already affected parts. Do gorgs grow their skin back when damaged?? Or is this guy doomed

 

[sam.basye]

How long have you had the gorgonians?
They look like purple sea whips.
I've never had any real luck with the l ones I've collected washed up at the beach.

 

[Ron Reefman]

How long have you had the gorgonians?
They look like purple sea whips.
I've never had any real luck with the l ones I've collected washed up at the beach.

It usually depends on 2 things, how long have they been on the beach and your water quality.

Gorgonians can survive quite a while out of the water, but at some point they do become damaged to the point they can't survive. I've had several beach collected purple gorgonians that were attached and growing on clams and both survived. But I've also had beach collected gorgonians die with in days of being collected.

The conditions in many/most of our tanks are not really very conducive to grow NPS (Non Photo Synthetic) gorgonians. They like high flow and slightly dirty water (dirty as in high nutrition). If the polyps come out regularly, you are probably going to have some degree of success. And don't take the gorgonian 'shedding' it purple flesh as it dying. Because they tend to grow in dirtier water, the often get algae growing on them, so every month or two they shed their outer purple cover to release the algae that may be growing on them.

 

[ArtsyAxolotl]

I've had them for a couple months now. I have a whitish one with brown polyps (that I'm pretty sure is a Plexaurella of some kind but I don't know for sure since the LFS got them in as "assorted gorgonians"), the one pictured here one which I have no idea what species it is, and a Purple Plume (although the plume doesn't seem happy so I'm not expecting it to last).

The white one always has its polyps extended, the various inverts in the tank generally leave it alone, and it seems to be doing quite well.

This purple one opens its polyps (white) frequently. Not always, but frequently. It seems more sensitive to being bothered than the white one (it doesn't retract its polyps all the way when bothered like this purple one does). Sometimes its super fluffy. Other times it hides. I sometimes have to trim it down since the tallest branch likes to grow out of the water. Admittedly when I first brought it home it was missing a patch of skin over a small joint (less than a quarter inch of skin missing) and that grew over within a couple days. This though? Its way more missing skin than before and I"m concerned it can't recover.

I'm running under the assumption that none of them are photosynthetic and spot feed them with the rest of the coral. Both seem to appreciate it.


The plume is doing whatever its doing. I only brought it home a few days ago. Some parts look like harmless shedding, others look like its dying. But that's a problem for another thread. I might just not have the water params for the plume.

 

[sam.basye]

Usually, once a portion of the flesh starts to look like toilet paper breaking down in water, the rest of the flesh will follow suit.
If you can run your finger over it and it doesn't start to disintegrate, the flesh is still healthy.
Kind of a general rule of thumb - for sea whips anyways.

Hope they make it!

I always fought with the sea whips getting Dino's and manually having to brush it off.

 

[ArtsyAxolotl]

that's great to know. I tossed out the plume today. It was doing exactly what you described; even disturbing the water near it more than the normal water flow caused pieces to rip off exactly like wet toilet paper. So, I'm not taking any chances of that fouling up my water. Good thing it was free

Good news about the one the emerald injured! The smaller open parts around the branches are totally healed over The only part that hasn't healed over yet is the very bottom between the first set of branches and the plug. I think feeding it more frequently helped. I increased feedings on that particular coral to once daily. Small, targeted amount with a pipette instead of a turkey baster whenever the polyps were most extended. Now it's staying extended very frequently and the skin seems to be healing up.

And the emerald is pleased with his daily offering of algae pellets. Balance has been restored lol.

 

[johnike]

I was going to suggest sending it here to have a word with my Mantis Shrimp.

 

[ArtsyAxolotl]

haha your mantis would laugh in my emerald's face. He's all bark and no bite! He acts like he's the king of the tank (his name is Oz) but if you get near him he runs for the nearest crevice.

Heck, the Peps bully him. I doubt your mantis would take crap from him XD

 

[johnike]

No, she would promptly eat it.