offminded

ok...i may just join the emerald crab hater club...my emerald devoured my pulsating xenia last night...i am so mad!

Tumbleweed

Sorry to hear that. I have heard that before. I think in my reef tank I will just avoid emerald crabs.

mastercave

after i bought my emeralds and sallys last week, i'm starting to have 2nd thoughts. i'll probably pull them when i finally put some corals in there.

Tom

That's weird, cause the emerald crabs I've ever had, which is two, have never touched any of my corals. Mine have even sat in or under all my coral and used it as a shelter. So maybe yours just didn't have enough food.
Tom

offminded

i suppose it may not have had enough food, but i doubt it. i am irritated nonetheless...my main concern was that my coral beauty might eat it up...didn't think the crab would...grrrrrrrr...

Tom

But you do know that emerald crabs are known for eating coral if there isn't enough food in the tank? That's why I said that. It's the same with some of the other fish and inverts in the SW tank.
Tom

Oil_Fan

I had the same problem with my 2 emerald crabs after I put in some yellow polyps. I ended up loosing over half before I pulled them out. I love emerald crabs too. They have some personality and are kinda cool to watch. It's just too bad mine wanted my corals.

I ended up taking them back to my LFS. I may end up trying to get a couple more later on but they'll be far smaller than the ones I had. Mine were pretty big and probably had quite the apatite.

agsansoo

My motto has always been "just say no to crabs". That said, I have one tiny little hermit crab. I pull emerald crabs out of my acros when I buy small acro colonies. I've watched acro crabs munch on my arcos at night ! "Just say no" LOL

Tom

And yet for me, I haven't anything but good things come from the crabs in the tank. So I guess it just depends on the crabs you get, and many other things.
Tom

Trio123

I have found something very neat about these little fellas that you guys probably already know They tear up some hair algae! Whenever a coral (star polyp, zooanthids, or mushrooms) gets hair algae on them I plop them into a tank with just emerald crabs. They clean it incredibly well and the polyps or mushrroom opens right back up when it is put back into it's tank. We have an emerald crab in a tank full of xenia to control the hair algae... so far so good but now you scared me, I will have to keep an eye on him!

Tom

But like I said, I've never had any problems with my emeralds, so don't worry, just keep a watchful eye on it though.
Tom

Oil_Fan

They are suppose to be reef safe...at with caution. As long as there is enough food for them, then they should leave the corals alone.

mastercave

what do you feed a emerald crab to make sure there's enough food?

Tom

Mine eat some of the frozen rotifers that I feed my corals, and it also gets some of the algae off of the rocks as well as some of the extra food that got stuck in between the rocks.
Tom

nemo addict

emerald crabs when hungry will eat anything they are scavengers but they are mostly used to control hair algae at which they are very good at,, they eat all types of algae and once this runs out they will start on corals or inverts and some can eat small fish if they dont move quick enough ,, most people return back to lfs after there experince