Emerald Crab on Toadstool Leather Coral

[Alexander1312]

We got an Emerald Crab a couple of days ago, and it appears he prefers to sit on our Mountain Dew Toadstool most of the day and all night. Unfortunately, the coral, which did exceptionally well before his arrival, no longer opens up. Any best practices or suggestions on how to address this issue? Thank you!

 

[blaxsun]

Have you tried moving the crab?

 

[j.falk]

Remove the crab from the tank.

 

[Alexander1312]

Have you tried moving the crab?

Do you mean off the coral or rather to a different area of the tank?

 

[blaxsun]

Do you mean off the coral or rather to a different area of the tank?

Both.

 

[shakacuz]

to the sump it goes! (the crab)

 

[DiabloJP]

Same thing with my Red Mithrax -- he's been obsessed with the neon green toadstool since discovering it a few days ago and as soon as the lights go out he climbs-up and spends the night there.

The first night it stayed closed completely but now the two of them seem to get along fine. He shows-up at the base of the toadstool about 10 minutes before the lights go out and I swear I can actually feel his excitement through the glass as he's waiting.

He jets as soon as the lights come on.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

I'll bet it eats the polyps, thats why the coral doesn't open anymore. I would pull out that crab.

 

[billyocean]

Remove the crab..especially if you have acros. The crab messing with it will probably cause the toad to release terpenoid toxins which are no good for acros and I euphyllia I believe.

 

[billyocean]

Running GAC will help with that btw.

 

[Alexander1312]

Have you tried moving the crab?

Great suggestion, thank you. I have done this a couple of days ago and it seems to no longer want to sit on it. However, it is still showing some interest, and the toadstool started to open up again this morning.

 

[Alexander1312]

Remove the crab..especially if you have acros. The crab messing with it will probably cause the toad to release terpenoid toxins which are no good for acros and I euphyllia I believe.

Thank you. I did spend a significant amount of time observing this crab (which appears to be a male), and it really seems to be very careful with the corals, and 'aggressive' with hair algae and the rocks. If there is any chance to keep it, I would like to. I do run Granular Activated Carbon (GAC), so hopefully, this will offset it in case it does release the toxin. I do not have Acros (new tank since Sep 2022) but I do have Euphyllia, so I definitely would not like this to cause issues. I will continue to observe closely, and I really appreciate this context.

 

[Alexander1312]

Same thing with my Red Mithrax -- he's been obsessed with the neon green toadstool since discovering it a few days ago and as soon as the lights go out he climbs-up and spends the night there.

The first night it stayed closed completely but now the two of them seem to get along fine. He shows-up at the base of the toadstool about 10 minutes before the lights go out and I swear I can actually feel his excitement through the glass as he's waiting.

He jets as soon as the lights come on.

Very helpful these before and after pictures, thank you for sharing!