Acro crab --- safe?

[FB]

Is this guy safe. I am treating this coral for red bugs and don't want to kill it if he is good.

 

[FB]

I have done some searching and it looks like they are so called bandit crab. I also just found another one in the same coral

 

[LeslieH1]

Not only are they safe but they're important for the acro's health. This is Tetralia nigrolineata. Nigrolineata means black line & refers to the black "mask". All Tetralia are obligate commensals on coral. In return for a place to hide & a bit of mucus & flesh for food the crabs protect the corals against & predators & keep them clean. Corals with these crabs grow faster, are healthier, and live longer than acros without crabs.

 

[stubbsz]

Looks just like mine. I just did a red-bug treatment on my tank so mine is living in a container with some chaeto and a rock floating in the QT/crab refuge. I felt really bad flushing him out of his home. It's my happiest Acro and I'd like an acro crab in every acro personally.

Speaking of Redbug treatment... I thought I found all my hermits and post-1st treatment, I found a happy scarlett cruising around and looking fine! I hope the red-bugs weren't so resiliant.

 

[kyrie_eleison]

wow. you got an acro-crab along with your acropora? cool! I was watching Blue Planet a while back and they showed an episode on the coral reefs where the notorious Crown-of-Thorns starfish was invading a reef and it just happen to have stumbled onto this acro-crab's coral and the acro-crab got PISSED! The acrocrab decided to fight back by biting/cutting/pinching the starfish to the point that it ended up leaving the acropora alone and going elsewhere. That was a cool episode.

 

[Snowboarda42]

can you buy those anywhere?

 

[cindre2000]

When ever I order a decent size branching SPS (Acro, Stylophora, Pocillapora, etc), where I work; there is always at least one acro crab in the colonies, sometimes two.

 

[Canarygirl]

Yeah, I just got two in a small colony from Bali...Bali bonzai or something like that. One stayed and one moved into a neighboring colony.