Info
Tetralia cinctipes Paulson, 1875
General information:
Tetralia crabs are found exclusively in corals of the genus Acropora.
They live there and certainly contribute to keeping the coral healthy.
Therefore, please do not remove the crabs; they are not harmful to the corals, on the contrary, they are even useful.
Keeping them is not difficult.
They catch passing food, but can also be fed specifically.
They sometimes even hold on to the feeding pipette :-)
However, if you ever need to bathe a coral in iodine (e.g., due to a turbellaria infestation), the crabs must be removed from the coral beforehand.
They would not survive this.
The best way to do this is with a cable tie :-) and fish them out...
Important note on coral crabs:
Tetralia usually only live on Acropora. Trapezia, on the other hand, live on Pocillopora, Seriatopora, and Stylophora (T. cymodoce is listed as also associated with crinoids in southern Maluku (Monod & Serène, 1976: 27), most probably the result of mixing samples during collection.
From: “Results of the Rumphius Biohistorical Expedition to Ambon (1990) - Part 7. The Trapeziidae (Crustacea: Brachyura: Xanthoidea) of Indonesia” Castro, 1990).
Note on gender differences:
Males have a pointed ventral flap, females have a large rounded ventral flap.
Synonymised names
Tetralia glaberrima f. pullidactyla Patton, 1966 · unaccepted > unavailable name (unavailable name)
Tetralia glaberrima pullidactyla Garth, 1971 · unaccepted > junior subjective synonym
General information:
Tetralia crabs are found exclusively in corals of the genus Acropora.
They live there and certainly contribute to keeping the coral healthy.
Therefore, please do not remove the crabs; they are not harmful to the corals, on the contrary, they are even useful.
Keeping them is not difficult.
They catch passing food, but can also be fed specifically.
They sometimes even hold on to the feeding pipette :-)
However, if you ever need to bathe a coral in iodine (e.g., due to a turbellaria infestation), the crabs must be removed from the coral beforehand.
They would not survive this.
The best way to do this is with a cable tie :-) and fish them out...
Important note on coral crabs:
Tetralia usually only live on Acropora. Trapezia, on the other hand, live on Pocillopora, Seriatopora, and Stylophora (T. cymodoce is listed as also associated with crinoids in southern Maluku (Monod & Serène, 1976: 27), most probably the result of mixing samples during collection.
From: “Results of the Rumphius Biohistorical Expedition to Ambon (1990) - Part 7. The Trapeziidae (Crustacea: Brachyura: Xanthoidea) of Indonesia” Castro, 1990).
Note on gender differences:
Males have a pointed ventral flap, females have a large rounded ventral flap.
Synonymised names
Tetralia glaberrima f. pullidactyla Patton, 1966 · unaccepted > unavailable name (unavailable name)
Tetralia glaberrima pullidactyla Garth, 1971 · unaccepted > junior subjective synonym
