What is this parasite?!

[Bryan47]

So I was looking at one of my corals and there was a spot with dead tissue. It appeared almost raised and something told me to remove the dead tissue and see if there was anything under it. The piece I took off looked suspicious and to my surprise I looked under the microscope and jewelers loupe and it was some type of parasite! I was able to get a picture of under the microscope. You can see clearly legs and a set of pinchers. If you look toward the bottom of the parasite it almost looks like eggs.

What is this and what do I do?!

 

[kynan]

A good thing some sort of amphipod.

 

[Bryan47]

It is way bigger than any sort of pod I've ever seen. It is the size of the chunk missing. That microscope is like a mini jewlers loupe it isn't that magnified. And it was burrowed into the coral and the coral was dead there. It's pinchers give me the idea it isn't a good thing. I will post another picture with a size comparison.

 

[NanaReefer]

Remove it! Not sure what it is but seeing as it has pinchers I think some sort of crab or shrimp maybe.

 

[Triggreef]

That's no pod. It is creepy looking. Waiting to hear from tweaked he's into this stuff.... I would remove it.

 

[Triggreef]

Could be a baby emerald crab, shrimp, or other. I've seen spawning events with tiny little shrimp/lobster type critters in my tank. They general don't live though, this one looks a little bigger.

 

[mtc1966]

Is that a shrimp like tail I see curled up ?

 

[Bryan47]

I have no idea, I saved it. It looks like it has like eggs attached to it. I will get more photos. The coral just didn't look right raised up. Something just tell me see if something is in there causing it to be raised up. And the coral wasn'tooking good. I will use my calipers to measure it as well. I've seen pods in my aquarium all the time and this was much bigger. In my aquarium I have a peppermint shrimp, banded coral shrimp, cleaner shrimp, and an emerald crab. All have been in there for at least 3 mo

 

[Eckolancer]

IME crabs with pointy claws are usually bad.

 

[Bryan47]

Yeah I was blown away when I looked more closely at it. And why it was burrowed in my coral...

 

[Mike J.]

I'm presuming it is a larval stage crab.

 

[Bryan47]

That does look close! I did think the amphipod looked close and they do burrow but it was way too big. The only crab in the tank is an emerald.

 

[Bryan47]

So is it possible the emerald crab put her eggs there and only one hatched and that's why you can see eggs? (can't see them in the picture I posted I'll post another. How long does a female carry eggs for? Doesn't a male have to fertilize them?

 

[Bryan47]

So my girlfriend acclimated the emerald crab because I had to go to work and we just remembered she called me and said the emerald crab is being weird with the corals I can't tell if she's eating them or what. And I was all freaking out. I wonder if she was planting them..

 

[Mike J.]

Crabs have to mate when they're soft. A male will pick up a female right before it sheds. When it sheds he will flip her over and mate her and then protect her until her shell starts getting hard again, a few hours. Crabs broadcast their eggs, up to a million of them. Very few survive the larval stage. I'd like to see a pic taken from the top.

 

[Mike J.]

Missed part of your question. What you think is eggs is called it's telson. When the crab reaches juvenile stage it will curl up under the body of the crab and become it's genital parts.

 

[Bryan47]

Wow glad you know so much! I will take another picture and take it to the meeting

 

[Mike J.]

Did my dissertation on ecdysis, years and years ago.

 

[Bryan47]

Well your a convenient guy when a crab lays it's eggs in your coral. Or the larval stage of a crab burrows in your coral.

 

[Bryan47]

Someone posted on the R2R forum where I posted this. It's a gall crab. Never heard of it but that's definitely what it is