Mushroom eating Decorator

[Doc Hammer]

Ok, so I got a Stenocionops furcatus coelata that appears to have a taste for mushroom corals! When I first got him, which was about four weeks ago, I put him in my 12g Nano Cube and watched him for a little while before going off to do some stuff. Two hours later I come back and find him sitting atop the rock with my mushroom coral frag. I wasn't really upset, I just figured that he'd been hungry from his trip from Florida to my house. After awhile, I thought it was safe to get another mushroom frag, so yesterday I got one from my LFS. Then what do you know, just now I take a look at my tank and find that the crab was eating yet another mushroom! Anybody else ever have a problem like this, just having decorators doing stuff like this. I really don't understand why he'd be eating them, I feed him pieces of silver sides everyday and some times he gets little treats of tiny clams I find embedded in LR.

 

[LeslieH]

Typical crustacean behavior. Crabs eat...and eat....and eat.....and eat. Once in a while they molt &/or mate. Then they eat again. The more they eat the larger they get, the faster they molt, & the more eggs they can produce. Besides, just because yit gets silversides doesn't mean it actually likes silversides.

 

[Doc Hammer]

Funny thing about him is that every time I put a zoanthid frag in with him, he always pops them on his back! Just yesterday I saw him with a colony and he had it to his mouth! I freaked out cause I thought he was going to eat it. I wasn't worried about the zoanthids, I was worried about him! Those zoas are poisonous! Turns out he was just cleaning them off before he put them on his back. He's only eaten mushrooms and a coral banded shrimp, which I don't think was doing that well anyways since the day before he ate it it was acting strange. But somehow he knows not to eat the zoas and just puts them on his back.

So when he molts, will he just pick off the stuff that was on his back before and put them on his new carapace?

 

[LeslieH]

Hard to see as it seems to be a matter of individual variation. Some crabs will transfer their decorations after molting while others will pick up new ones. Some change decorations every couple of days which is why many people don't like to have them in a coral tank.

 

[Doc Hammer]

Well he's pretty good, and the zoas seem to be doing well on him since he's not shy and will sit out onto of rocks below the HQI, so I'm not worried about him killing them. However, I'm currently cycling a 10g tank specifically for him, since I'd like to keep corals in the 12g. But I love the guy and think that he's just aspiring to look like a rock.

 

[LeslieH]

I have a video clip of a decorator crab photographed in Indonesia (not mine so I can't post it). The crab is covered with dead leaves, cigarettes butts, betel-nut fibers (which are spit out after chewing, kinda like snuff), & other trash. Maybe yours would like some?

 

[Doc Hammer]

Oh I doubt it, he's quite the dapper fellow, only taking the zoas as his camouflage! But I might put some colorful things that he might fancy in his tank once he's moved in their, maybe some colored gravel.

Here's some pictures of him!
(Sorry about the quality, I haven't yet figured out how to take nice pictures of my tank.)

You can see the zoas on his left side and the top of the ones on his right.

 

[Doc Hammer]