Strange hermit crab behavior

[MistaSparkL]

I've got this one crazy hermit..about a month ago, I found him lodged in between the branches of my candy cane coral. I was like, beh, he must be stuck, so I had to pull out the coral and dislodge him.
Hours later, I found that he climbed up and lodged himself in the same spot. I left him alone...2 weeks have passed..He hadn't moved so I pulled the coral out and dislodged him again--this time putting him as far away from the coral as possible. The next day I found him in the same position..he has been there a week..tonight I had to remove him from the coral yet again, and about an hour later...he was right back up there.
What gives? All of my other herms crawl around all day on rocks, and he climbs up a a branch and gets lodged in between the polyps. I did notice tonight that theres a white clump that looks like eggs on a branch of my candy cane. Is this what my crab has been up to?

 

[Innovator]

You might want to check your coral for flatworms or other nuisance predator/parasites. It just so happens this behavior was noted, much the same way, on a colony of acropora and montipora consuming nudibranchs. Don't take the coral out of the water so you don't dislodge anything just in case, but could very well just be a persistent crab too XD

 

[MarineFlake]

I have a couple red legs that live in some SPS coral. They come out on their own and given that naturally they are not keen on lots of light, he probably goes hunting while your fast asleep and appears to be back in the same spot the next day. Its pretty normal from my expereince. Much like a clown fish will sometimes take an anemone for protection, so crabs seem to hide among the corals they feel safe in.

Happy Reefing!

 

[MistaSparkL]

I was concerned because some of the polyps have been looking irritated and not opening where the crab lodged himself. I had enough tonight and I scraped off what looked like egg sacs on the branches of the coral..my hermit hasn't come back.

 

[Innovator]

If you scraped what look to be egg sacs, you may want to inspect your corals in greater detail for predators and note that qt may be in your future depending on the outcome.