emerald crab

[mattstewart]

hi all,
i was thinking about getting an emerald crab but just wanted to check to make sure it wouldn't kill anything. Inhabitants:
cleaner shrimp
peppermint shrimp
various snails
serpant star
bta
couple of scarlet hermits
finger leather
mushrooms
chilli coral
yellow tang

From what I have read, I think I'd be ok, but I just wanted to check others who have had experience with them.

Thanks

 

[paats]

I`ve had a couple and they never harmed anything.I`ve read that they are good for controlling bubble algae but mine never did.Cool looking though.

 

[Mikef1]

In my experience they are safe if you feed them on a regular basis. They are known for grabbing fish though.

 

[Anonymous]

I have one...he has gotten quite large too..he is a beast and has a nasty little pinch..he has assaulted my Choco star on a few occassions..he's on parole now but pretty harmless for the most part..he lets the fish know when they get too close...when mine sees me he charges the glass with claws wide open..i think theyre neat and have pretty cool personalities...IME theyre pretty reefsafe..

 

[mattstewart]

Thanks for your input.
I think I'll try one out. They're pretty cool looking.

 

[MDboyz]

I bought two of them for controlling bubble algea. However, only one is eating it. Anyway, they are also eating some of my grean algea too.
I hear the big one will sometimes catch your small fishes tho.

 

[tyrone_001]

We bought one on a Friday and it expired before Monday. Not sure what we did wrong to it.

 

[Sprattoo]

I had one for quite some time. Relatively docile, ALWAYS munching Algae of all sorts.. even ripped up some hair algae when I had it.. maybe he was just bored though.

You gotta have food for them. Brine shrimp pellets seem to be yummy.

My concern is your peppermint shrimp with a BTA. I had 2 peppermint or camel shrimp they WIPED out ALL Aptaisia... YAAAY (I thought)

Then I bought a nice Bubble tip. The water quality I purposefully kept a close eye on... everything was a go. The thing kept moving around. eventually started looking sickly... One night I was looking at the tank with lights out and dim light on.. my peppermints were snipping off pieces and snacking.

They would stick their claw out almost to get a sting.. then pull the tentacle under the rock and >>SNIP<< off the end with the other claw. I couldn't catch them and inside of two weeks the anemone had disappeared. Munched I assumed.

They moved with the tank and had left my big ol' Condylictus alone, seemingly only on occasion snipping off a tip just as they had before with the BTA. The condys tentacles are about 8" across so I think it's size won out. I haven't seen the little shrimp for about 2 weeks or so now... and I just noticed a little aptasia.

He seemed uninterested in Zoos and 'shrooms... they just liked tentacles.

 

[K9coral]

I have an emerald that I recently discovered loved the taste of osc. clowns. 2 months after I bought the clowns we had a power outage and 1 of the 2 clowns disapeared. Last week we had another and as I was walking around checking for leaks with a flashlight, I notice the crab had grabbed the other clown and made him into crabsh*t. Sorry for being blunt but its true.

 

[hillbilly]

I hate crabs. You never know what they might destroy in your tank. They can be cool and then one day they just start destroying prized creatures. I prefer to leave them at the LFS. My 2 cents.

 

[Anonymous]

Punish the deed not the breed

 

[jandree22]

I hate crabs. You never know what they might destroy in your tank. They can be cool and then one day they just start destroying prized creatures. I prefer to leave them at the LFS. My 2 cents.

I agree. Cleaner shrimp are the only clawed creatures I trust.... you see, I had one until my Pep ate him :evil: