Is this crab (pic) eating my Polyps (pic)???

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grimlock3000

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Here is the crab that has recently begun being active at night. It has molted once in the two weeks I have had it. It wa sa hitchhike on live rock:

reef9.jpg


Here are the Polyps(?), they used to be out and waving around. Recently, they are staying retracted most of the day :(

reef10.jpg


Is the crab eating these or harassing them? They do not look nipped at. What else could cause the regression in the Polyps? I will post current water parameters tonight.
 
If ANYTHING gets to close to them they will close up...
A snail crab or evenif current is too strong they will close, but it looks like the current is ok though, or else the other will be closed. And as soon as the danget passes it takes hours sometimes a day for mine to come back out. I have the same ones you have..
 
What kind of lighting?

15w 50/50 for now. Tonight, my 2x 40w PC light shows up :) Then I will have 40w of dual spectrum daylight, and 40w of dual spectrum Actinic.

How old are they?

No idea. I got these on a piece of live rock at a LFS.

Lighting?

Deja Vu 0X Is lighting really important to these? Glad I have the new light showing up soon.

Water Flow?

Moderate. I have a powerhead blow water in their direction at the surface of the water. When I first got the rock, I had the powerhead going right at them. I found that pointing the powerhead at the surface helping them open up.

If ANYTHING gets to close to them they will close up...

They live on that rock with a bunch of Forams. You can see them in the pick, they are the red things. The Forams have been all over that rock the whole time I have had it. I will keep checking the rock tonight to see if anything else gets could be touching them. I do not have much else in the tank except for pods, worms, and the crab. Not even a cleanup crew yet.
 
Forams are little red "things" that just sort of poke around without any major body parts. They look like flat red dots. I never even see the things move, but they get around somehow. Here are some pics of them under different lights:

reef4.jpg



reef5.jpg


Anyway, I have a bunch of these in the tank, I will try to clear them from the area with my turkey baster to see if that helps. If I can not blow them off, I will just smoosh them into the rock, they seem to multiply without an issue :p

//UPDATE: The pics in this post are older, while the one at the top is from yesterday The Forams have moved from the left side of the rock, over to right with the Polyps, I think we are on to something...
 
Those might be red flat worms a bad thing in a reef tank, if they multiply like you say I am betting that's what they are......
Can u get a close up of them.
Also they release toxins into the water when they die. I would not smoosh them and would do more research on them. My friend gave me some caluerpa with them and I did not know I had them till it was too late. Thankfully they are only in my fuge on my fowlr tank. These guys will bother corals from what I've read about them. Flatworm exit works on them. But you will need to syphon the dead ones out of your tank so they don't release toxins into the water. I hope its not them....
 
The flatworms blow right off the rock with a turkey baster. I cleaned up the entire rock with the Polyps. I also angled the Polyp rock more toward the light. And, my new light came in! :D This Current USA 2x 40w light is NICE, I hope my corals appreciate it :)
 
I would keep an eye out for more FW..... You blew them off the rock but did you get them out of the tank? They will be back unless you get every last one of them. Good luck getting rid of them.
 
This sucks! I blew off all the Flatworms last night, and this morning the area was covered with them again. The Flatworms must have quite the colony in that piece of LR. Also, the Flatworms I blew off are now all around the rest of the tank. I am calling a few LFSs now looking for Flatworm Exit. I am not having much luck, going to have to order it online and have it overnighted to me so I can take care of this :(
 
I would keep an eye out for more FW..... You blew them off the rock but did you get them out of the tank? They will be back unless you get every last one of them. Good luck getting rid of them.

Very true. Luckily I have no fish in the tank so I should be able to deal with this without any major losses. After treatment, I am going to get a couple more pieces of LR to help reseed and small inverts that may have died off.

One thing that really ticks me off about this is one LFS has Red Flatworms ALL OVER in their display tanks. I was assured they were harmless and actually good for the tank. Had I known what these were, I would not have purchased LR there :( The LFS was Pet Quarters, I should have known better...
 
The clear/white flatworms are ok not the rust/red. Here is another story of a LFS giving bad advice. My friends have used FW exit and have not had and ill effects to there tanks. Corals, fish clauerpa all ok. Just remember that you need to syphon out the dead flatworms asap. If you have any seaslugs,seahares get them out it will kill them...
 
get rid o the crab anyway i have one thet looks the same that started getting big (size of a marble plus legs) that never caused any trouble and within a week i saw him eating 1 of my bumblebee snails and killed one of my zebra hermits so now him and the rock he was hiding in are in another tank
 
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