What's happening to my ORA Plum Krazy frag?

I lost a firefish and yellow watchman to that exact type of crab after they decided to take up residence at night in and under the same rock as the crab. I caught him redhanded (or red clawed :)) with the firefish just after lights out when it went in the rock to sleep.
 
i would never keep a sally light foot crab in a tank again. they are fine when they are small but when they grow they will eat anything that they can catch. my buddy had one and he actually caught it on the side of his hippo tang trying to eat it. needless to say he tore his tank apart that night to get the crab out.

as for the one you have my motto has always been if it has hairy legs get it out. if it has smooth legs they usually ok. it is hard with crabs. i have a few in my tank that are hitchhikers that i could never get out. i have a couple acro crabs that now host in my birds of paridise and pink birdsnest. and dont hurt the corals at all. the only smooth crab i ever took out was a black crab with big claws. just looked like trouble and didnt trust him.

if you say that you dont think it is it then leave it if you want. good luck
 
I have had an identical crab to that. He ate an anthias at night. That is not a sally lightfoot. Look at how stocky that crab is. Have you ever seen an algae eating crab built like a tank like that? They don't exist. That guy is a major carnivore. Ask yourself this, what is the crab helping in your tank? You have unexplained problems, and despite your best efforts there is no way humanly possible that you could be monitoring your whole tank every minute of every night. Try feeding him nori, then wave a piece of shrimp past him. I promise he will snatch the shrimp. If protein is short in you tank, he will eat the first thing thank can't swim away.
 
I would never be able to feed him anything, he scurries away at movement. He never wants to come out of his little rock. I am getting a larger tank (actually already have it, waiting for stand to be built) that will have a sump, if I catch him while transferring things over he will go in the sump.

I know it's not a sally light foot, I know what they look like.

I laughed at the comment about him being built like a tank.
 
Is that an acro crab? I have one as well that lives in a colony of mine, but have not noticed any harm done to the coral itself.
 
No, it's not. Acro crabs are much smaller, this guy is about 1 1/2".

EDIT: My mistake, I thought acro crabs didn't get over 3/4". They get to one inch. I'm trying to find pics of them, but the only ones I see are the ones on LA. The similarities are red eyes and end there, the ones on LA have different claw shapes than the one I have.

Mine's claws are, well, pictured :P and the acro crabs have more of an elongated claw as well as, it appears to me at least, to have slimmer legs.

crab-acropora-trapezia.jpg

One variation of the trapezia crab which has a commensal benefit with acro/pocilopora. This one doesn't have red eyes though, but shows the difference in claw types as well as the legs.

If anyone that doesn't know about the acro/pocilopora crabs, a.k.a. "Guard Crabs," I just found this article on them and will definitely be ordering some once my frags get to be colonies; very interesting read.

http://reeftools.com/reef-id/crabs/acropora-crab-trapezia-sp/

Stumbled upon this post http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=14177297#post14177297
The OP has the same crab I have, but it was determined to not be the cause of fish killing and only eating carrion.

And another post http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1786877 where the second post says they mainly eat algae! Built like a tank to bulldoze that algae :D
 
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GOOD NEWS, EVERYONE! (In case you didn't know, for everyone that may have played WoW, Putricide is an homage to this guy :beer:)

My sps are gaining their colors back already!!!!

I tested my water and my Ca was way up, as well as my Alk and SG (Idk, when I tested everything last week it was fine) but, now all is well. I can't tell you all how ecstatic I am.

Well, some of you probably already know the feeling.

I am happy!

On to more sps growing!
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