Whodunit

Wanted to give the public a chance to weigh in before rehousing my emerald crab. I was the proud owner of a Little Rock flower anemone for approximately 24 hours before it was shredded.

inhabitants

Two spot blenny
Cleaner shrimp
Blue chromis
Helfrichi firefish
Hermit crabs (blue and red)
Nassarius snails
turbo snails
Green banded goby
Astraea snails
Trochus snails
Cerith snails

my money is on the emerald crab with the candlestick in the library. Corroborating evidence: already found messing with polyps and I found him hanging out in the hole with the RFA. But I did not see him literally do the deed. Any other possible suspects?

 

Sorry.... that was a great story to a bad ending for your Anemone. I wish I knew Salt water fish to help.

 

Sure sounds like you have your suspect cornered. Hope you can beat a confession out of him. Lol.

But this makes me second guess possibly getting one for my tankI plan to make a reef tank out of it.

 

Yeah they have a reputation I just really like the feisty little guy. The only other ones I can think of are the cerith, nassarius or hermit crabs. I hate to kick out the emerald crab and get another RFA that will end up food to something. I don’t think a cerith or nassarius would *kill* something even though they eat meat. I suppose I wouldn’t put anything past those dang hermit crabs either.

 

Yeah they have a reputation I just really like the feisty little guy. The only other ones I can think of are the cerith, nassarius or hermit crabs. I hate to kick out the emerald crab and get another RFA that will end up food to something. I don’t think a cerith or nassarius would *kill* something even though they eat meat. I suppose I wouldn’t put anything past those dang hermit crabs either.

I wouldn't imagine so either, I know a lot of people use the others as normal cleaners. Always a bummer to catch a murderer in your tank. Good luck!

 

Well just as a test I put some of the left over anemone bits into the travel container with the emerald crab and he immediately went to work munching them, which is the best I could approximate to catching him with his claw in the cookie jar. I suppose it establishes he considers it food. Seems like a trick out of an 80s Law and Order episode

 

Hi,
Emerald crabs are hit and miss in a reef environment.

Some say if it's kept well fed, they are well behaved reef resident. Others have had horror stories.

All of your other stock is considered 'reef safe', so I'd say the crab is the suspect.

 

Hi,
Emerald crabs are hit and miss in a reef environment.

Some say if it's kept well fed, they are well behaved reef resident. Others have had horror stories.

All of your other stock is considered 'reef safe', so I'd say the crab is the suspect.

Agreed. I see people casually recommend hermits as reef safe all the time and I correct them all the time. All crabs are technically opportunists but given that the emerald is generally 2x the size of your average and has much larger claws, it's the one who has the best chance of ripping apart a 'nem like that. Only other thing I can think of is if it got up into your power head and got shredded that way.

 

As a follow up, I received new anemones earlier this week, and they have remained untouched. Justice has not missed its mark.