Reef Discussion

[Agent M]

I've recently added a few things to the tank so I'm bound to have some new life in there, but I was surprised to see this on the sand today:

So what do you think it is? And is it most likely alive or dead? This looks like a piece of a claw or something rather than a moult to me.

@Dr. Schell

 

[Dr. Schell]

looks likr a piece of porcilin crab claw

 

[Agent M]

Ok good, lets hope so as it won't kill anything if it is still alive somewhere. I've been hearing clicking at night, so keeping an eye out for what that could be. I'm hoping its just my snails twisting their shells.

 

[MagicJ]

You had better keep an eye on those finger like things as well :p

 

[Agent M]

Did you get a fright when you opened this post and copped a screen full of my fingertips @MagicJ ?? :p

 

[Agent M]

Btw I am guessing that finding a piece of him doesn't bode well for the crab?

 

[MagicJ]

Did you get a fright when you opened this post and copped a screen full of my fingertips @MagicJ ?? :p

Fingers are not that scary - but naked fingers are a totally different matter .

BTW, what makes you think the crab claw is a recent introduction? It appears top have a healthy growth of coralline algae and it may have been there since you put the sand in ??

 

[Agent M]

BTW, what makes you think the crab claw is a recent introduction? It appears top have a healthy growth of coralline algae and it may have been there since you put the sand in ??

I rarely add anything new to the tank and I have a very open scape, so you get pretty familiar with whats in there. My sand bed was introduced in 2008 new in the packet and washed, base rock in 2007 with only a few kilo LR and then every time I added a new coral. In the last few weeks I've added a few new corals that only had slivers of live rock on them and I noticed some extremely tiny hitchhikers of which I removed one. I'm not saying I know everything that exists in there, but if there was a big porcelain crab in there as big as it looks to be, I would have to wonder where it was hiding... I dunno!

The clicking noise is new though - I don't like not knowing whats doing it - its only coming from one side of my tank. Some of my limpets have been knocked off and eaten on that side of the tank only in the last week. And now I find a piece of a crab in the same area. Crime scene!

The purple on the claw is its natural colouration rather than coralline growth.

 

[MagicJ]

Sounds like you need a hidden camera :)

 

[Agent M]

Now that would be cool! Infrared or something...

 

[MichelleShocked]

Hmmm. Limpets gone missing? Sounds like you have a little mantis.