DallasNYC

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Today I noticed about 4 of my florida ricordeas are completely gone. I have had them for about 2 months now and everything looked fine yesterday. I inspected the ones I still have left today and there is no sign of decay or damage. They look perfectly fine. On saturday, I added an Emerald Mithrax Crab to handle some bubble algea I have. I also added a Fromia Starfish.

I don't suspect an infection because I didnt see any signs of one yesterday before or any signs today. I gave them an iodine/Fresh Water dip just in case.

Has anyone experienced thier Emerald crab eating soft corals, Ricordeas in particular? Should I suspect the fromia star too?

I have a feeling I will be spending my night dis-assembling my rockwork to find the Emerald...


Thanks for any ideas..
 

D1J8Z

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Turn off water flow add food and emerald crab should come out ESP at night

Also when lights are out use a flash light to take a peak at whats going on AFTER DARK :irked:


I dont see the star eating coral.. but the emerald crabs have been known to turn on corals and eat what ever is around when no food present
 

DallasNYC

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Thanks,

I actually found him doing what he is supposed to be doing.. eating algae.

I also found one of the Ricordias floating loose in the back of the tank. So now I am second guessing myself. I had done a water change yesterday as well and I was a little low in salinity, so added a thick mixture of salt water (about a 1/4 cup) to the tank. I did it very slowly, but yes, it was right over the ricordias that are missing. So maybe they let loose because they didn't like the conditions? That said, I still havent found the other 3.

I will probalbly take out the Emerald anyway, so I can sleep...
 

D1J8Z

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there really hasnt been to many documentations of emerald crabs eating coral but there has been OBV enough for sites to let you know they may
 

KathyC

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Thanks,

I actually found him doing what he is supposed to be doing.. eating algae.

I also found one of the Ricordias floating loose in the back of the tank. So now I am second guessing myself. I had done a water change yesterday as well and I was a little low in salinity, so added a thick mixture of salt water (about a 1/4 cup) to the tank. I did it very slowly, but yes, it was right over the ricordias that are missing. So maybe they let loose because they didn't like the conditions? That said, I still havent found the other 3.

I will probalbly take out the Emerald anyway, so I can sleep...


sigh....please check salinity before adding whatever water to the tank. I can guarantee you they didn't like it.
If you find yourself in this pickle again..please take the water back out and change the salinity outside of the tank before re-adding it, and only raise the salinity in small increments.
When in doubt, ask here, there's always people around to help out ;)

Hope you can find them & have luck getting them to reattach to rubble (don't glue them! lol)
 

DallasNYC

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Yes, I knew better about the salt. Laziness takes over sometimes and I have to learn the hard way. I have a container with rubble rock in it for the loose one to re-attach. The Emerald stayed in the tank last night, and everything looks fine this morning. I did check in a few times last night with a flash light and only caught him picking on the rocks.
 

DallasNYC

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Thanks for your input rGun on your emeralds. I would like to think its the salt, because that's an easy problem to fix. The emerald will stay as long as I don't see anything else disappearing. He is busy all day picking at algae..
 

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