Are these 'crabs' destroying my bird's nest?
 

The pics are hard to make out, but I have just discovered these 2 crabs that are nesting and seem to be eating at my bird's nest. They are the size of a quarter I would say, and look more like a hairy spider than a crab. Don't know where they came from! Do they need to go...if so, can they be caught easy like?

Thanks!

Hairy legs generally = bad. I would flush/sump them/give the to some one with a trigger. you should be able to get them out fairly easily with a pair of tweezers.

pretty neat looking crab, i had a hitch hiker like that when i purchased some LR, ended up dieing looked alot like yours there. i'd put them in the sump.

send them to the nutrient infested heaven. i hate crabs, had a bad experience once.

To be safe, I'd probably remove those.

How do you catch them? Mine is always hiding and I tried the bottle trap. :neutral:

In a small coral, I'd either use tweezers or a needle to poke them.

chop sticks. works really good with birdsnest. sometimes a freshwater dip with some sort of solution (like reVive) works. thatis if you can remove the colony

those look pretty specialized.

They look so much like the birdsnest.

I would be surprised if they did more damage than an acro crab.

Usually if an organism depends on another so much that their bio chemistry is specifically adapted to it it's unlikely that it will do morethan minimal damage to it's host.

Something to consider, as thats a really neat looking symbiosis and not one a lot of people can brag about.

how long have you had them and have you noticed any adverse effects of their being there?

If I cannot catch them.......will they eventually kill my coral?
 

They look very feisty and not sure if I will do more harm than good catching the little buggers. Is there a name for them (just so I know)?

Thanks for that great info...
 

I have not seen any real bad damage, but I only noticed them 2 weeks ago and have been away for 6 days and will see them again tonight for the first time since my mini-vacation.

It is true that they so match the birds nest so that you can barely notice them when they are active, so could have been there for months - from where, I know not.

if it were me, I would just take pleasure in such a unique symbiosis occuring in my tank and just enjoy them until you notice any detrimental activity.