Hitchhiker on/in Cup Coral

Discussion in 'ID This!' started by karcury, Oct 12, 2008.

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  1. karcury

    karcury Astrea Snail

    Joined:
    Oct 4, 2008
    Messages:
    70
    Location:
    Bountiful, UT
    Now I know what the coral is, what I should do with it and the purpose of it's shedding, I have a NEW question! Last night I was feeding with zooplankton (bottled) and noticed that there is something embedded in the coral that when I spot fed with a baster wiggled, had very tiny claws and some type of mouth. It almost looks like some type of bug? It is very blue in color, and I checked with a flashlight several times during the night but it did not actually come out of the coral.

    I have a photo, but don't know if you can tell anything from it. Any suggestions? Don't know if it will hurt the coral or I should just leave it be!

    [​IMG]
     
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  3. PharmrJohn

    PharmrJohn The Dude

    Joined:
    Jun 29, 2008
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    4,622
    Location:
    Shelton, Washington
    I have no idea what it is......but is looks to be parasitic in nature. I would remove it. That is my gut feeling.
     
  4. PackLeader

    PackLeader Giant Squid

    Joined:
    Aug 17, 2008
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    5,716
    Location:
    Reno, NV
    parasitic coral pit crab. Remove it with a pair of tweezers and give it the porcelain waterslide
     
  5. karcury

    karcury Astrea Snail

    Joined:
    Oct 4, 2008
    Messages:
    70
    Location:
    Bountiful, UT
    thank for information
     
  6. karcury

    karcury Astrea Snail

    Joined:
    Oct 4, 2008
    Messages:
    70
    Location:
    Bountiful, UT
    Got it! Thanks. I couldn't get at it in my tank with tweezers, so I removed the coral from the tank and fresh water dipped it while trying to remove the parasite. It was really wedged into the coral tightly. I finally cracked the parasite's shell trying to get it out and had a little shrimpy swimmy thing that certainly didn't like the fresh water. It twitched a bit before it bit the dust. I cleaned the rest of the debris out and now I have quite the pit in my coral, but no more creepy wiggly thing. Yay!