will hermit crabs eat candy cane coral.

[Ehgemus]

ok two weeks ago one candy cane coral head was half way gone, over night, three days ago another one totally gone, and now tonight one small corner of one is gone.
There is a hermit crab about 2" from it, could he be one doing it? also I was looking at the coral and there is one of those little star fish on it, not on the head but on the side. the little hitchhiker stars that are smaller than a dime with different size legs. could he be the cause?

 

[Sk8r]

No, no culprits in the lineup you've provided. I'd say look at a) flow: if strong current is hitting it, that could bruise and kill tissue, or b) alkalinity below 8.3. [Don't get it much above 9.3.] c) ph above or below 8.2-.3. Or nitrates/ammonia more than 0.

There are pests, too, but water quality is the likeliest.

 

[Ehgemus]

ok the only thing that it could be is a pest that I don't know about, or my ph. my ph is 7.9 at night and 8.0 in the day.
The ph I have listed above is a miss print. I will change that now.

 

[Ehgemus]

Also I will check the flow.

 

[Sk8r]

That's not too bad a swing. That alk is a bit high, however. I run about 8.3, which is somewhere around 2.97 and have good expansion on candycane. Dunno if that could do it, but that's one thing I see; the cal could be a little lower---the mg s/b about 3x the cal, so that's a little out of balance. Just looking for differences and potential problems. They aren't fond of too much phosphate, either. I'm still battling mine down with phosban, and am seeing much more expansion. Having any runaway algae? That's a sign of phosphate troubles, and it doesn't always show on the tests....

 

[jasper24]

What color is the starfish That you saw on it? Some may disagree but I have had the gray / bluish ones eat Zoanthids. The white ones that I have stay on the glass for the most part but I have seen the gray / bluish ones on my Zoanthids and LR causing harm.

 

[Ehgemus]

I know my parameter are a bit off and I am working to balance them.
The only algae problem I have, and I don't really think it is a problem is a little red slime algae that grows only i my refugium.
also the star fish is white in color
here is a picture about two week ago. you can see the probem on the left side of the coral. looks like it is starting to grow back. can thay do that?

this is a picture for today of the right side of the coral.

and a tank shot for fun.

Thanks for the help

 

[Sk8r]

Beautiful tank.

And yes, occasionally...the flesh stays intact deep in the heart of the head, and it grows back.

But I think I see your problem. Is that Sinularia directly below? I think you've got some chemical warfare going on there. Possibly only that one head is getting it, but that beautiful softie is notorious for being rather aggressive. If you moved the candy cane over to behind where the clown is, it might prevent conflict.

 

[Ehgemus]

are you talking about the leather above the candy or the kanya tree below?

 

[Sk8r]

You know, looking at where that water jet is relative to the candy cane and the leather, that's remotely possible...but 'kenya tree', yes---I don't id leathers as well as I should, being pretty strictly a stony keeper these days, but that's the guy I mean. Your candy cane is taking damage on its bottom edge, and I'm betting the flow is hitting the glass, coming back through the 'tree' and up toward the candy cane. I'm just real suspicious that's a problem. You know that leathers exude a no-growth-in-my-presence hormone that acts on stonies, and in some cases can get pretty strong. What makes me particularly suspicious is how happy the tree looks, while the cane is having trouble and even the leather above doesn't look half as happy and may be getting some of the 'tree's' hormone too...Just a guess, but when I see a real happy leather I think: that guy's having the fun, but how are his neighbors liking it?

I had an encrusting leather once that was the champion of spit-wars. It would turn nasty purple when it really got annoyed, and absolutely everything in the tank would close up. Carbon can alleviate that situation, but if a stony is too close, the stony just needs to be moved to safer territory.

 

[Ehgemus]

well i was thanking of getting rid of the Kanya trees, because they are always breaking off and attaching in other places. about one a month I have to pull out 4-5 trees that have attached somewhere else.
would it be ok to cut them off the rock with a razor blade? there are two of them.

 

[Sk8r]

They'll likely regrow, and you can re-root them elsewhere, but they'll be smaller and weaker when they regrow.

 

[michaeldaly]

Very nice tank. I like the light colour. What bubs are you running?

 

[Ehgemus]

It's a reeflux 12k 250w

 

[3mm3]

Just curious what kind of hermit crab it is?

 

[Ehgemus]

just a blue leg hermit

 

[3mm3]

Hmmm..... the only thing I can say is that a lfs here doesn't cary them because they say blue leg hermits are known to nip at corals. I however have a dozen in my tank with corals but have had no known problems with them. A friend of mine does have a different type of hermit that does eat corals though. Not sure what the name of it is though.