Gall crab outside its burrow in Cyphastrea serailia (Photo credit: Van der Meij)We have all heard the oft-repeated warning to “dip before you trip.” We are told by many sources online to dip any corals we receive in order to eliminate pests. Most of the time, pests come in the form of hitchhiking nudibranchs that can mow down zoas and other soft coral colonies. Then you have the flatworm family, which is so broad that it’s hard to single out a species unless you have a microscope. There are also larger hitchhiking pests we can see without the use of a scientific lab. For example, there are the beautiful Aiptasia and majano anemones that will sting your newfound friends to no end. But I’d like to talk about an interesting group of hitchhikers in the crab family, and one nasty one in particular: the gall crab.Gall crabs are largely unknown to many an untrained eye and reefer, as they are not as abundant in reef systems as other hitchhiking crabs, such as gorillas, emeralds, or decorator crabs. The problem with these crabs is they are parasitic to corals, especially hard corals like Trachyphyllia (brain coral) and members of the Faviidae family, such as Platygyra daedalea
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