HELP - Crab in acro

[nano10]

i posted this in the Discussion furom but i'm not getting a straight answer


I just got back from the LFS where the owner gave me a Acrop Colonly that was dieing to frag off of. When i was fraging it i saw a Crab thats very Small maybe 1/4" wide should i keep it or disgard it.

 

[dznuts007]

I have acro crabs...no harm. People say the hairy ones are bad, but that I don't know about. Urs looks harmless.

 

[twon8]

based upon the condition of the colony i would say he is bad. plus blue eyes are said to be a bad sign, and i believe i see blue in yours.

 

[DMK]

i had same crab in a big frag i bought. i removed him. better safe than sorry. use tweezers.

 

[jda]

You can chase them out with toothpicks too.

That one looks OK to me, but if you have any doubt, don't risk it. Hairy are definately bad.

 

[idua]

That looks like a regular acro crab. I have few of them too. I donââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢t think you have anything to worry about.

 

[impur]

Hmm looks bad to me. Looks like a crab i recently yanked out of a nice mille colony i have. Mine was larger so the hair on the legs is more visable. The claws look very similar

Here was mine

And here is what it did. Ripped all the polyps out then started eating the flesh.

 

[dolt]

I would definitely get him out - the only ones that I know of that are safe are the bandit ones - which this one is not - get him out now before you learn the hard way like I did

 

[Sparkss]

I agree with dolt and the others that said it didn't look safe. There are 2 rules for acros crabs :

Rule #1: Hairy is bad, smooth shell is good. Anyone that tells you that a hairy acro crab is "good" must have a coral colony that they want to sell you just as soon as your hairy crab kills the one you have, seriously.

Rule #2: Blue eyes == bad, and red eyes usually means good, which is a bit of a general reef contradiction since red eyes on a non-acro crab is a huge warning sign that he is a predatory crab (more so than most, since all are oportunistic feeders which makes them all predatory by nature).

If you really are in doubt, it is usually safer to err on the side of caution and get him out. We had one that I hesitated on removing, and by the next morning he had kill 3 good sized healthy stalks of the milli mini colony that he came on (that was the first hairy acro crab that I had personal experience with). They will literally rip the flesh off of the coral's skeleton.

 

[Chaotic Reefer4u]

wow what experience's...

 

[redox]

in the wild they might be ok but in captivity I can see no benefit to keep them . can anyone out ther say they have had an acro and the same crab live several years , any one?

 

[The Marmot]

Just picked one of those little buggers up on a frag today. I'm trying to get him out right now.

 

[Rogger Castells]

I accidentally found a fast way to get crabs out of acros, I was deeping an acro colony in water with some lugol's solution, and the crab just jumped out. I tried a second colony and the same thing happened. Hope this help

 

[dznuts007]

I'm just curious as to where the "rules" that:

1) hairy crabs are bad
2) blue-eyed crabs are bad and red-eyed crabs are good

I mean, I've heard all the time that hairy crabs are bad, but is this something that can be verified? Does Dr. Ron, or the other experts have information on this? Anyone have any links? I'd like to read more about it.

"based upon the looks of your colony, I would say he is bad"

Is it bad because it's assumed the crab did the damage? How about maybe the crab did no damage but was at the "scene of the crime"?

 

[jay24k]

I have one that I've had for about 8 months. Still kicking and he refuses to leave the colony. Not sure what color his eyes are but he isn't hair and he is mostly white.

 

[jjackson]

I had one in one colony and one in another... they both moved to the same colony... and have been there well over a year together now.... it is one of my happiest colonies..... cant say the ones I have are bad... they are smooth though... I will look at eye color when I get a chance... here is the colony.

Jay, for some reason we both seem to chime in on the same posts around the same time....

sorry the picture is under actinics... I like the silloutte look.