decorator crabs interesting decorations?

[hydno]

hi folks new to this forum.

been keeping marines for about 2 and a half years, and seen one or two strange things in that time, but the other week i bought a decorator crab put him in the reef tank and as i expected it promptly dissapeared.
a few days later i started to notice some of my brown clove polyps had dissappeared.which for the next couple of days had me investingating every possible explanation.having my suspisions about the tanks new inhabitant i set about on a night time vigile.about an hour and a half after lights out i saw something move move in the corner of my eye (almost cr**ped myself) ,i turned to see the decorator crab completly covered in my brown clove polyps.
my suspicions were right but way off. i thought the crab had been eating the polyps not wearing them.it was completly covered in stones when i got it ,and i thought the brown polyps must of tasted but not good not look good.
just goes to show even crabs have style!

 

[clarkii]

HaHa, Yes the decorator crabs are funny little characters. Not advisable in a reef tank, they will crop almost any coral to carry around and can be quite distructive, in some cases they help propergate but in most they will harm the corals sometime so far they will perish. I have also heard of rare occasions where they take fancy to small anemones and try to chop them up to carry around.

Very cool to see the crabs at work though.

HTH

Ali

 

[hydno]

weel see how long it likes its new strides before i take any action.the brown cloves could do with a pruning though.loads of it.like blummin weeds.

 

[Angelscrx]

hydno , welcome to Reef Frontiers. It is always good to see new folks on this board. I too have heard a lot of interesting stories about the decorator crab and that's why I don't have one in my tank.

Keep an eye on the fashionable little guy.

 

[Zechirian]

Yikes.. Decorators drove me nuts.. it was a "oh thats cool" purchase that I regret still to this day. after he cut most of my polyps down, he moved to my Xenia.. then he started to think the fish were decorative.. lost a Sailfin tang, Yellow Eye tank and a damsel to this dude... Never again would i keep it in a reef tank..

Hopefully this one is better for you!

 

[NaH2O]

Welcome hydno, clarkii, and Zechirian to Reef Frontiers!!!

 

[gehidore]

hi folks new to this forum.

been keeping marines for about 2 and a half years, and seen one or two strange things in that time, but the other week i bought a decorator crab put him in the reef tank and as i expected it promptly dissapeared.
a few days later i started to notice some of my brown clove polyps had dissappeared.which for the next couple of days had me investingating every possible explanation.having my suspisions about the tanks new inhabitant i set about on a night time vigile.about an hour and a half after lights out i saw something move move in the corner of my eye (almost cr**ped myself) ,i turned to see the decorator crab completly covered in my brown clove polyps.
my suspicions were right but way off. i thought the crab had been eating the polyps not wearing them.it was completly covered in stones when i got it ,and i thought the brown polyps must of tasted but not good not look good.
just goes to show even crabs have style!

I managed to squish mine <my cooling coil knocked over a powerhead support rock structure> when trying to recover from a temperature spike <someone cranked up the heater after being told not to>.
It had used green star polyps for decor <all of which died from the heat >.

 

[clarkii]

Thank you for the welcome