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12-25-2002, 10:48 AM
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#1
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Stress Monger
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Las Vegas, NV
Posts: 3,186
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critter ID's
Here are a couple of pics of a crab that came in an acro the wife got me for Christmas (yes I will be posting pics of the corals later)and I'm trying to find out if it's good or bad. Also a pic of a snail that seemed to be trying to eat my turbo snails???
The crab is sort of flesh/pink colored with a black band across the top of it's head/face. Pinchers look pointed. Is this a comensal crab or should I get rid of it?
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12-25-2002, 10:48 AM
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#2
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Stress Monger
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Las Vegas, NV
Posts: 3,186
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Here's another of the crab.
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12-25-2002, 10:50 AM
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#3
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Stress Monger
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Las Vegas, NV
Posts: 3,186
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Here's one of the snail. I've found a few of these and banished them to the refugium for now. I will take them out and get rid of them if they are as bad as I think they are. This might explain why my snails never last very long...  This one is about 1 1/2" long and I just got another that is about 1" long.
Last edited by cyberchef; 12-25-2002 at 11:05 AM.
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12-25-2002, 12:04 PM
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#4
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Little Fishy
Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: Ohio
Posts: 66
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I have three acro crabs in two different corals. One looks very similar to the one you posted. They seem to just eat detritus and stray morsels of food when I feed. They seem to be harmless to the corals.
The snail looks like one I have that just eats algae. Some of my snails seem to clean others shells quite often. But just to be safe, I always watch them closely just to make sure.
Jeff
__________________
65 gal reef
http://www.sliceofreef.com
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12-26-2002, 01:00 PM
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#5
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Stress Monger
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Las Vegas, NV
Posts: 3,186
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Bump this back up. I have the crab and snails in a specimen container hanging in the tank. If the crab is good for the coral I would like to put it back, otherwise I'll send him to the refugium. I'm also very leary of putting the snails back, worried they may be predatory on the other snails. I also spotted a baby snail, like the larger ones in the pic, on the glass yesterday, which means they are probably reproducing... ???  |
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12-26-2002, 03:09 PM
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#6
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Shark
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: Fl
Posts: 1,772
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As far as the snail goes cyberchef this is what I use for my very scientific identification  . Welks (snail eaters) tend to stay in one place for a while with there trunks sniffing the currents, the algae eaters don't do this in my experience.
Steve |
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12-26-2002, 03:38 PM
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#7
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Good boy
Join Date: Jan 2000
Location: Marietta, GA, USA
Posts: 7,889
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Put the crabs back in.  I have three on one acro colony. They are good entertainment and they are harmless to the coral.
__________________
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12-26-2002, 06:13 PM
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#8
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Stress Monger
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Las Vegas, NV
Posts: 3,186
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Quote:
Originally posted by SPC
As far as the snail goes cyberchef this is what I use for my very scientific identification . Welks (snail eaters) tend to stay in one place for a while with there trunks sniffing the currents, the algae eaters don't do this in my experience.
Steve
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LOL... You pinned the guys right on the nose. they don't move much unless they are going to something for food. Otherwise they just tend to stay put with the snout in the air. The other day when I removed the first one it was on a turbo snail using it's snout to try and find the "meat/foot" of the snail, which kept moving in circles I think to try and get away from it. That was my reason for pulling it out in the first place... Thanks
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12-26-2002, 06:16 PM
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#9
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Stress Monger
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Las Vegas, NV
Posts: 3,186
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Quote:
Originally posted by Rick O
Put the crabs back in. I have three on one acro colony. They are good entertainment and they are harmless to the coral.
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Cool, I trust then that they stay small... Well I picked up one more Acro colony today and it has a crab in it also...  So I'll put the other guy back on the tricolor colony and enjoy the show... 
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12-26-2002, 06:17 PM
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#10
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Little Fishy
Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: Ohio
Posts: 66
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While maybe not "Scientific" those are some of the same clues I look for in "new" found creatures. Thanks for the tip, Rick
Jeff
__________________
65 gal reef
http://www.sliceofreef.com
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