jservedio Posted December 16, 2014 Share Posted December 16, 2014 This is for everyone who has ever complained that their "nasty hermits" have killed or hurt a healthy LPS coral... here is what happens when a hermit (and a very large, 3 year old one at that) tries to take a bite out of a very healthy Acan Bowerbankii. Your corals, especially LPS, are not as defenseless as you might think: Hermit Crab 0, Acan 1 For reference, that acan is only a little larger than a man's fist. If your LPS is healthy, it'll devour the crab and spit out the shell that used to be it's hat. Link to comment
Calil Posted December 16, 2014 Share Posted December 16, 2014 a different snap sometimes is tasty for them amazing moment Link to comment
jservedio Posted December 16, 2014 Author Share Posted December 16, 2014 a different snap sometimes is tasty for them amazing moment What got me most is this was a live hermit struggling to free itself and the coral overpowered it. This was a big sucker too - the cerith shell poking out the acans mouth wasn't just an extra shell I threw in there, but is the remains of my last cerith that was flipped and eaten by my biggest hermit about 8 months ago. When I target feed, my hermits will normally pluck the big pieces of mysis from the mouths of my acans. As soon as the baster goes in the tank and the smell of food hits the water, they pop alive and run over to my acan garden. This crab was on a ledge above the bowerbankii and plopped off the shelf to get down to the garden to grab a snack. It landed directly ontop of the bowerbankii before I fed it and it grabbed ahold of the crab and quickly wrapped around it. It only took about 3 or 4 seconds for the coral to wrap it up and I could see the crab struggling for a good 15 or 20 minutes. The next morning this was all that was poking out. Those shots are about 18 hours after the incident - but the actual struggle was insane - I've never seen anything like it. Link to comment
hey Posted December 17, 2014 Share Posted December 17, 2014 impressive pic, I had a similar occurance but far less impressive with a dwarf cerith being devoured by an acanlord recently. Link to comment
bob115 Posted December 17, 2014 Share Posted December 17, 2014 Damn. I'd have been worried that the struggling would damage the coral, but still that would've been a really cool show. Link to comment
East1 Posted December 17, 2014 Share Posted December 17, 2014 it probably suffocated after a few moments like that Link to comment
plainrt Posted December 17, 2014 Share Posted December 17, 2014 Lol good to see a somewhat local on here. Link to comment
Thomas898 Posted December 17, 2014 Share Posted December 17, 2014 Wow that is impressive!! I hate hermits a little bit, so good to know some corals can defend against them. This is a very blurry pic of when my acanthophyllia got hold of one of my nassarius.. I miss that little guy. I keep his undigested shell as a warning to all other nassarius who want to approach a hungry coral Link to comment
teenyreef Posted December 18, 2014 Share Posted December 18, 2014 It's nice to see the good guys win for a change It's usually the crabs beating up the poor defenseless corals Link to comment
JMarcink91 Posted December 18, 2014 Share Posted December 18, 2014 karma is a bitch! hahah awesome capture Link to comment
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