Has my decorator crab lost its mind?

[crazyreefnut]

My decorator crab has cut my clove polyps and attached them to himself. The question is since the clove polyp has not reopened will it live? Or has this crab killed it? It happened last night so this is a new issue. I have never seen this before so even a seasoned hobbyist runs into something new.

 

[reefereric]

A decorator will take whatever is around it and place it on itself to camouflage against predators. If clove polyps are around, clove polyps it takes. They'll take zoas, mushrooms, kenya trees, and even the occasional snail shell in my experience. You clove will probably not live in this case, as it sounds like it's just one or two. My decorator used to take colonies and move them around, and they'd live. Kind of an automatic re-arranging machine. But it's got to be a smart crab. Not saying yours is dumb or anything...