Teeny hitchiker crab?? Update/not a crab

[debdp]

So I won a gift certificate at the frag swap from Cherry Corals and the ones I picked came in today. Of course they weren't expanded. These are my first acans. I'm seeing this opening in one and figured it was maybe where one had died. But something kept moving inside. I took a baster and blew on it and it closed up flat into the hole. I dipped the corals in Pro Coral Cure for 15 minutes and it seemed unaffected.

[attachment=2]Crab maybe1.jpg[/attachment]

[attachment=1]crab hiding2.jpg[/attachment]


With the polyps expanded there's no way you would ever see it. I guess this one is going to stay in QT for a while.

[attachment=0]crab hiding.jpg[/attachment]

 

[Monti]

Looks like a gall crab. Nasty little buggers, they can damage the coral around them and may actually eat it. Surgical removal is recommended. If you do a search there's a couple of other reefers out there that have had to remove theirs.

 

[debdp]

Thanks... but he was out a bit more last night and I could see one of its large, thick front claws. It's going to be really hard to tell what he is... but eventually he's going to out grow that tiny hole. That opening I'd guess is about 3/16 maybe so it's really tiny. I just don't have the heart to kill it... and I'm really curious. I'd like to document its growth (if it manages to survive through molts) just to see what it turns out to be.

 

[v320]

Interesting find Deb! Keep us posted!

 

[debdp]

Well maybe not a crab... looks more like it might have been an isopod. Too bad it died.

I went to check on the acans to see how they were doing and saw this floating over the hole. I thought it might be a molt, but it's too spongy solid and I don't see a larger version. But I'll keep them under QT a while longer.

 

[Renmar]

That looks disguisting

 

[Dylan]

Sweet acan!

 

[aentrop]

its not a crab. Its a barnacle. They sweep out of the hole and capture food. This both disturbs the surrounding tissue of the coral as well as steals food that the coral would capture.

 

[coralreefer]

@aentrop wrote:

@debdp wrote:

Since Barnacles are crustaceans as well - they too will molt. Any chance this barnacle molt, that doesnt seem like a molt, is indeed a molt?!? Meaning, could that little guy still be alive in there? Have you seen him in there?

 

[debdp]

Thanks for the note on the possibility of it being a barnacle, and even though I was pretty sure it wasn't, I did do further research on images and I'm still sure it wasn't a barnacle, but more along the line of a predatory isopod. I'm afraid that since I couldn't get a very clear picture of it, the picture may be deceiving making it difficult to identify. I have a couple barnacles that hitchhiked in on an acropora I got a couple years ago and they're still there, waving their little fans.

This incident definitely makes me aware of how important it is to quarantine everything you get before placing it in your display tank. I dipped this coral for five minutes in a Tropic Marin iodine mixture but using saltwater and not RO water since I wasn't sure how the Acan would react. Small pods came out and died but it had no affect on this critter.