emerald and/or sally lightfoots

[michelle]

I love the idea of having one or two emeralds or ssally lightfoots. The lfs I deal pretty exclusively with, says they are risky and actually are one of the things they won't carrry (along with starfish other then blue linkia, any crab other then small hermits, damsels,etc).
They say that they are one of those crabs that don't hunt fish, but if they came across one at night in a sleeping hole they would eat it.
(same story with the starfish)
What do you guys think? I really would like one of them

[reeffreak]

If I had to choose between the two then emeralds all the way.Sally's are always risky and emeralds are only risky when that get older and if algae becomes to scarce.

Are you just looking to add one or the other as part of a cleanup crew or you want them for other reasons?

How about a nice friendly porcelain crab or a shrimp-skunk cleaner,fire or a group of little sexy shrimps.

[yote]

Im agreeing with Reef.
Sallys are cool,but can become a problem.Emeralds usually stay fairly well behaved.

[simpleman]

I agree with reef and yote

[michelle]

I wanted them as a part of the clean up crew, but also because I like the look of them. I had 2 skunk cleaners, but they both died in the switch from the 55 to the 72. I have one fire shrimp. My LFS won't carry the porcelain or the sexy shrimp. Both of witch I think are really nice looking shrimp. I am sure the lfs I deal with would order them for me on special order. They just would garauntee that they wouldn't kill something, or take them back if I had problems with them. (although they may take them back...they are pretty good)

[reeffreak]

Porcelain crabs and sexy shrimps won't kill anything.

[Bifferwine]

Freak is right on. Sally lightfoots will almost always become predatorial. And not just to sleeping fish they come across. Sally lightfoots will actively chase down and hunt fish, and I have seen it myself in my own tank. I used to have 2 sally lightfoots. I watched them hunt and kill two red firefish. When they caught and killed my sixline wrasse, that was the last straw. I had to get them out! Of course, the more I read up on them, the more I realized that this was very common behavior for sallys.

As for emerald crabs, it's pretty rare for them to go after fish. I have had a lot of emerald crabs and never had a problem. I have only heard of a few people having problems with their emerald crabs, but it's enough for me to say to beware of the really big ones (they aren't usually aggressive until they get really big). I have emerald crabs in my tank now, and will have them in all my tanks in the future. Overall, they are really great animals and go unchallenged when it comes to algae eating capabilities!

[Piggy]

I also agree get a emerald over a sally. I have a emerald and a porcelain. Both have been very well behaved.

[simpleman]

I had a sally eat all the polyps from a toadstool......
it died
not reef safe

[michelle]

Thanks guys, would 2 emeralds be ok? or should I stick with one?