Gorilla Crabs and Zoas

[FlyingFishSKYw]

My Zoas seem to be disappearing... I think... I got a 4"x6" zoa colony from Divers Den that seems to be shrinking.

I know there are a couple gorilla crabs wandering around the rocks. Could I have one munching on my Zoas?


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[j_mazzy]

light, flow, nutrient levels? Any idea if there could be nudibranchs?

 

[FlyingFishSKYw]

Light, flow and parameters are all good.... i snuck up on the tank tonight, turned on my iPhone flashlight and saw something go skittering away deeper into the Zoa rock. Uh-oh, I thought... I removed the rock and gave it a freshwater dip. Amphipods. Five or six came off the colony. Would they be the culprit, or just happen to be there? No nudis, fortunately. Anyway- no sign of a gorilla crab close by. I'll keep an eye on things....


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[h3dgehog]

Light, flow and parameters are all good.... i snuck up on the tank tonight, turned on my iPhone flashlight and saw something go skittering away deeper into the Zoa rock. Uh-oh, I thought... I removed the rock and gave it a freshwater dip. Amphipods. Five or six came off the colony. Would they be the culprit, or just happen to be there? No nudis, fortunately. Anyway- no sign of a gorilla crab close by. I'll keep an eye on things....


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Had something similar happen. I think the larger copepods/amphipods bother/pester the zoanthids. Then there are the tiny crabs that nip at it if they are hungry and there is nothing else to eat. I'd recommend getting a pod-eater like a wrasse and take a few nights with a tweezer in one hand and red flastlight in the other to catch tiny unwanted crabs.

 

[Fiver]

Yes, they will eat zoas. I saw one cut off a polyp. Trap them all and get rid of them. Good luck.

 

[FlyingFishSKYw]

I spied a big one (~2") a couple days ago. That night I tried setting up a trap with a mason jar, unfortunately my sea stars really wanted the silverside at the bottom of the jar and I spent a good 15 minutes shooing them away hoping the gorilla crab would crawl down. Eventually I was able to skewer him with a wood sish-kabob stick and left him for the scavengers to clean up!

 

[Fiver]

Mine also cut the legs off of my serpent stars. Saw them latch on and pull the poor star's legs.

 

[Biggen]

I've been battling gorilla crabs since I got my TBS shipment. I've skewered about half a dozen so far and still have a couple to go. You need to really get a flashlight and look into every nook and cranny you can to get rid of the darn things.

 

[razord]

Same issue here.

 

[neiltus]

Dropping one of those little plastic flap traps in overnight can help too. I have caught a few that way.

 

[75mixedreef]

I learned to hate gorilla crabs and other hairy crabs from a buddy of mine that owns a LFS. He had significant losses of coral from those little B%#$W^ds. Tweezers and patience goes a long ways. So does persistence and a hunger to see those things die for the damage they have or would have caused.

 

[Lmax8rn]

My Zoas seem to be disappearing... I think... I got a 4"x6" zoa colony from Divers Den that seems to be shrinking.

I know there are a couple gorilla crabs wandering around the rocks. Could I have one munching on my Zoas?


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I had a couple of gorilla crabs and I actually saw them with zoas in their claws, eating them. Needless to say, they are no longer with us....

 

[lmm1967]

Mine are in a display fuge. 2 of them are trained to the point where when I shine a light in their rock hole they come to the entrance and wait for food. I'm enjoying every hitch hiker that came in with the TBS rock.


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[h3dgehog]

What may be a good idea depending on how much tabs rock you got, you may want to get a combination of invert eating fish and a big mantis shrimp that will do away with all pests. Then you can remove said fish and big mantis and not have to worry. This may actually be what I do next time I order from TBS in a large quantity.

 

[Professor Sweat]

I still have about half a dozen gorillas in my tank, but all they're doing cleaning up after my fish at this point. One little jerk grabbed my Mini-maxi once, but after a tweezer to the face it seems to have learned it's lesson. I'm slowly moving them to a 1 gallon pico with some rock rubble from my LFS. Needless to say, well fed gorillas haven't caused me too much trouble.

The real troublemakers have been an urchin bulldozing my ric's around and KEYHOLE LIMPETS! I have two that gobbled up all my pink encrusting sponges and ATE TWO OF MY ZOAS! I watched them do it! I was shocked. They have been banished to the 1 gallon.

:headwalls: