Friend or Foe?

[Instigate]

One of my emerald crabs got all these hairs on him and I didn't think much of it because it looked very similar to the normal hair on their legs. A couple days ago I found him dead on the sand. Wasn't really 100% sure if it was a molt or a carcass. There wasn't an opening in the back like the previous molts I had found but when I forced it open there wasn't much of anything inside. But it could have been there all day and maybe the cleaner shrimp got to it. Today I noticed a stomatella covered in the same hair stuff. Is it some kind of invert parasite? Also, I didn't see the "hairs" on the back of the corpse. If it was a corpse. I'm pretty sure it was.

So my cleaners have been releasing their babies today so I was searching around to see if I could find any and I found this. Is it the baby cleaner shrimp? I thought it looked similar to the hair on the inverts.

 

[Katrina71]

Sorry about your crab.

 

[Katrina71]

Curious what this turns out to be.

 

[Instigate]

Sorry about your crab.

Thanks. Out of the three I got, one eats my LPS so he's banished to the fuge and the other died. So I've just got one picking away in the DT now.

 

[Instigate]

Curious what this turns out to be.

Me too, I don't think it's a coincidence that both these inverts are getting covered in that stuff.

 

[Katrina71]

How do your fish look?

 

[Instigate]

How do your fish look?

Normal and healthy. My other crab and cleaner shrimps are all looking normal too. Nothing on the nassarius or trochus snails either. But The stomatella and the crab that died were both inhabiting that same rock. And that rock is also where I found what I thought was "baby shrimp" at first. Now I'm thinking it's whatever was covering the crab and stomatella.

 

[Instigate]

Zanclea hydroid?

https://www.lionfishlair.com/hitchhikers-guide/

 

[Maritimer]

What's on the Stomatella are little fringes on its mantle - normal for these guys. Crab sounds like a moult - after which, they'll lie low until their new shell hardens. Keep an eye open for his return, I suspect he will.

+1 for hydroids growing on the rock - cleaner shrimp larvae are planktonic / pelagic. Any that weren't consumed by your filter-feeder community were taken up in your filter.

~Bruce

 

[Instigate]

What's on the Stomatella are little fringes on its mantle - normal for these guys. Crab sounds like a moult - after which, they'll lie low until their new shell hardens. Keep an eye open for his return, I suspect he will.

+1 for hydroids growing on the rock - cleaner shrimp larvae are planktonic / pelagic. Any that weren't consumed by your filter-feeder community were taken up in your filter.

~Bruce

Should I be worried or keeping an eye on the hydroids? And would hydroids grow on the back of an emerald crab?

 

[Maritimer]

Probably not a bad idea, so as not to let the hydroids take over - and yes, they probably could grow on the crab's carapace.

~Bruce

 

[Instigate]

Anything I need to know about removing hydroids if they become an issue?

 

[Maritimer]

I've never had it to do, but would guess that someone else on the #reefsquad has experience with 'em.

~Bruce

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

The pics aren’t clear enough for me to reel
If it’s a hydroid.
Easily could be a bryozoan or foraminifera.

Kinda the same treatment though.
Reduce carbon dosing and aminos, check your water tds, add better mechanical filtration to strain particulates. Strain foods etc and the toothbrush with mech filtration.

 

[Instigate]

The pics aren’t clear enough for me to reel
If it’s a hydroid.
Easily could be a bryozoan or foraminifera.

Kinda the same treatment though.
Reduce carbon dosing and aminos, check your water tds, add better mechanical filtration to strain particulates. Strain foods etc and the toothbrush with mech filtration.

Yea, the video with two clips is cell phone footage and the last one is on my sony mirrorless but I'm dicking around with extension tubes and a vintage nikon lens so it's not very bright or crisp. I need to get me a decent macro lens I think. There's never enough light, I loose so much light to the tubes and the vintage nikon lens has that soft vintage look.

I'm not doing any carbon dosing or aminos, TDS is 0. As far as mechanical filtration I have a mesh filter sock on the drain and a strip of filter floss before the return. I suppose I could move to a felt sock. I strain the mysis but then soak it in selcon. And when I feed the fish frenzy I don't strain it for fear of washing away the probiotics and whatnot. Toothbrush? Are you saying to take a toothbrush to the hydroids to physically remove them?

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Yep. Toothbrush to remove them.

A Nikon micro 55mm with vintage doubler. You only lose one stop. Then use the digital doubler in camera. Gives you about a 300mm macro , or micro as Nikon would Call it.
And there shouldn’t be a vintage softness. Should be razor sharp.


And oy, I hate the tubes.

 

[Instigate]

Yep. Toothbrush to remove them.

A Nikon micro 55mm with vintage doubler. You only lose one stop. Then use the digital doubler in camera. Gives you about a 300mm macro , or micro as Nikon would Call it.
And there shouldn’t be a vintage softness. Should be razor sharp.


And oy, I hate the tubes.

I have a bunch of the vintage nikon lenses. In that video I was using the 105/2.5 AIS and the whole stack of tubes. I don't have the 55 but I do have the 50/1.4 AIS What's a vintage doubler? My problem always seems to be not enough light. I have to open the aperture wide open to get a properly exposed image. But then I'm left with a little sliver of what's actually able to be in focus. I'm not familiar with the term doubler. Is that like a digital zoom? I always try to avoid the loss of resolution that comes with a digital zoom.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Google Nikon doubler. It’s a lens.

On all my cameras I push the Asa as high as it will go before getting grainy.
Then , balance the shutter speed,, usually 1/60 will stop a lot of shake.

Evry camera is different in the digital doubler. I don’t lose much in my d7000 or Panasonic 4/3.

Yea, I’ve got stacks of old lenses. The manual focus doubler are some a dozen now.

 

[Instigate]

Google Nikon doubler. It’s a lens.

On all my cameras I push the Asa as high as it will go before getting grainy.
Then , balance the shutter speed,, usually 1/60 will stop a lot of shake.

Evry camera is different in the digital doubler. I don’t lose much in my d7000 or Panasonic 4/3.

Yea, I’ve got stacks of old lenses. The manual focus doubler are some a dozen now.

Ohhhh a teleconverter. Ic. Ya I don't have one of those atm.

For sure. I think I was at like 1600 or so iso and 1/60th for the 24 fps. Thanks for the tips.