Brown fuzzy acropora crab, blue eyes
I'll see if I can catch this guy and get a picture of him. In the meantime, I'll describe what he looks like.
Came as a hitchhiker on a Bali acropora, a few months ago. I think he's possibly developed a taste for acro polyps. A lot of my pieces are suddenly showing a lot of damage, and I was getting pretty frustrated, not knowing the cause (I thought I had lousy water quality). But tonight I shine a flashlight in the tank after lights out, and I see this crab (I see him every day, I knew he was in there), but this time it looks like he's feasting on an acropora. Hard to tell what he was eating, tank was dark, but it sure looks like the coral just sustained some damage. I tried to catch him but all I did was chase him away. Guess I'll find out tomorrow after lights out how bad the damage is.
Anyone have experience with "brown fuzzy crabs with blue eyes" ? Are these known coral munchers?
Definitely not the same as a "masked" acro crab, I have those too. This guy is always on an acro so he looks like a commensal crab, although in 3-4 months has grown from about 1/4" to 1/2" so I'm kind of thinking even the accelerated growth rate may be a cause for alarm.
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-- Tony
My next hobby will be flooding my basement while repeatedly banging my head against a brick wall and tearing up $100 bills. Whee!
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