Dipping Acros that have crabs within the colony

goody · Apr 3, 2012

I have never purchased a mini colony or colony that had any acro crabs living within the branches, until today. I want to dip the coral in either revive or coralrx, but won't these kill the crabs? Anybody know of a safe procedure to dip coral and not harm the acro crabs?

SteezySPS · Apr 3, 2012

just kill it. friendly or not, its not worth the risk and they dont help with red bugs or aefw. who knows, they could have eggs growing on them

laskopyre · Apr 3, 2012

I've dipped colonies that had acro crabs in revive, and they are doing fine. I knew the person I got them from, so I wasn't worried about either of the above pests. The colonies sat in the revive for at least 5-10 minutes. I just like to dip everything that I get.

Ninjapotamus · Apr 3, 2012

it takes a while for revive to kill larger things... pods fall off fast... then bristle worms... etc etc... I doubt it even kills the crabs with a normal dip length

olesalty · Apr 3, 2012

i just had a colony that i dipped last week for 15mins. when i started to put it in the tank is when i noticed the acro crabs. Even after 25mins or so so after a little research to make sure they were cool to go in. They were still fine.

goody · Apr 3, 2012

Thanks all. Dipped in CoralRx, no signs of any pests and all crabs survived dip. A few came off some of the colonies and into the bucket, but I just used tweezer and put them back in.

Acrokeeper3729 · Apr 3, 2012

Good job, acros with coral crabs have been proven to do better then ones without them. Coral crabs keep small particles from settling on the acro in the tight spots that flow doesn't reach. You should dip the corals with the crabs in them, they very rarely do not survive the dip.

SteezySPS · Apr 3, 2012

I think its more a commensal than symbiotic relationship between a friendly crab and acro. besides the crab eating any settled food in the acro and defending its turf against natural predation i dont see any benefits in a tank, but feel free to prove me wrong and if food is able to settle inside a acro i think there isnt enough flow going through the coral. ime acros can take lots of crazy flow

revhtree · Apr 3, 2012

I hate to kill anything.

Acrokeeper3729 · Apr 3, 2012

Here's an article on a study that shows significant signs of acro crabs being helpful in sps colonies.

Coral Crabs

Lateral72 · Apr 3, 2012

revhtree said:
I hate to kill anything.

What about AEFW?

SteezySPS · Apr 3, 2012

thanks for the article nicks387. very informational. personally, after discovering aefw in my system despite thorough dipping, id rather play it safe and not have any due to the risks of pests it may carry. only thing going into my new system in the future are fresh cut acropora tips and thats the qt system.

revhtree · Apr 3, 2012

Lateral72 said:
What about AEFW?

I have a special tank for those. It's called my local reef clubs buddies tank.

Acrokeeper3729 · Apr 3, 2012

Sorry to hear that Steezy. That sucks for sure. You are absolutely right that the safest way to not get those nasty buggers is to only keep the top of an acro and toss the base altogether, as well as dip and look closely at the piece under a magnifying glass in high light and QT if possible. Thats a whole other thread though.

nvfishman · Jun 6, 2012

well I got several maricultured corals been dipping for 3 weeks. I have several acro crabs and have only been dipping and shaking the corals for 5 min so not to kill acro crabs

just did another dip monday and 1 large AEFW fell off.

Got the magnifying glass out and found 1 coral with eggs (weird it was a stag usually the last corals to get attacked)

SO now I am going to dip 2 times a week going to go 10-15 mins now just dont want to kill the crabs

What dip is everyone using I was using revive, now went to coral RX main pine ingredient in both
I was going to get tropic marin pro coral for the second day in the week.