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Is this Mithrax crab a problem or not?

  • coltweb

I was amazed that I caught this guy last night. I was about to do a coral dip to save the coral, and who happened to be hanging out on the backside? ;)

I put him in a small dish trying to decide whether to listen to the advice of those that opposed this pretty guy, and he hung on the edge of the dish for at least 15 minutes out of water.

Finally I dropped him into my refugium for now.

In a dish: Black Mithrax crab

Out of water:





In my refugium:

Note the shape of the claw in this pictures.

A crab in the hand is worth two in the reef?

In other news, the coral I dipped last night seems to be suffering from "brown jelly disease" and I was advised to dip it in Lugol's solution. (10 to 20 drops Lugols per Liter tank water; from 30 minutes to several hours). I pulled it out of the tank and put it in to a bowl, then using a turkey baster I endeavored to blast away the browned tissue. I expected it to come right off, exposing white skeleton, but it didn't come off. I left this coral in the dip for just over 2 hours, circulating the water with the turkey baster every 15 minutes. It is back in my tank now and I'm hoping it will recover. I did break off all the dead branches in this colony to improve circulation through the coral.

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