Emerald crabs

mono19

Reefing newb
Ive got three of these guys in my tank, they are cool and fun to watch but I saw one was nipping at some zoas tonight, is there anything that sinks that won't get sucked into my overflow that I can feed them?
 
If you're talking about the crabs, feed Mysis shrimp, they'll eventually learn to love the stuff, as tey are a clean up crew, they'll also work on micro algae.

If you're talking the zoas, there are ore qualified here for that.
 
My Emerald Crab is the most wanted critter in my tank right now. He hides 99.9% of the time. It's going to be a real pain to catch him.

He killed my newly purchased scarlet skunk shrimp. :grumble:

As soon as he shows himself I am capturing him and taking him to the lfs or my buddy said he would keep him.

Banished! I will never own another one.

Once he's gone I will get another skunk shrimp.
 
He was so beautiful!

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I'm sorry to hear about your shrimp. Mine have eaten many hermit crabs and two of my smaller fish.....they are getting kinda annoying lol. But I heard if you keep them feed well they will leave stuff alone...mine are getting pretty annoying lol
 
Just because something in your tank dies because your own ignorance and a member of your CUC eats its dead body doesn't mean it killed it! That's ridiculous!
 
He was decapitated. He didn't just die because of something I did wrong other than buying an emerald crab. The skunk shrimp went through a 3.5 hour slow drip acclimation matching PH and SG perfectly before introducing him. Water parameters are perfect and he was already cleaning everything in sight.

He was good to go. The next morning I found what remained of him. He was literally cut in half. and his head was missing.

Emerald Crabs DO kill things. My friend had a couple of smaller fish become victims of his Emerald Crab.
 
Ultra if you go to liveaquaria.com and check out emerald crabs it says that they will prey on inverts, corals and small fish. So it is highly possible.
 
Emerald Crabs move very SLOW they will raise their claws to a fish to intimidate them to get away but they are NOT predators!

They have rounded circular tips on their claws for a reason. All they do is pick at the rock and eat ALGAE & DETRIS ALL DAY...

You ppl who blame everything but yourselves for something that dies in your system really get to me... AN EMERALD CRAB MURDERING A FISH!!?? That has to be one of the most ridiculous things I've heard from a non troll on here...

Maybe I will believe it if some1 with more experience chimes in... But from my experience and knowledge there is no way in .....
 
Otherwise, this opportunistic feeder may turn to corals, invertebrates, or small fish for a food source.

Ok so they are opportunistic feeders, but that just means to me they will scavenge a dead body if they are hungry... I still can't imagine them (as slow as they are) to be able to catch a live fish...
 
That's like saying my foot long Brittle star will eat fish... yes he has eaten fish, but those were fish that were already dead or already starting to do the dying "kickin chicken" dance.

Otherwise I have a small fish (with one eye even) sleeping right next to him, no problem.
 
Actually large emerald crabs will go after fish, especially fish that go to hide in the rocks at night. However, you probably lost the shrimp to acclimation. Even if you do take all the time, they dont always make it.
 
I have also had large emeralds go after snails, but like Hannah said it is only when they are large and most times due to a lack of food for them in the tank..
 
My emerald crab was eating my zoas as well and occasionally picks at my other corals if I don't spot feed it. I've been taking a cube of formula one, holding it between a pair of tongs that I bought to reach frags at the bottom of my tank, and then holding the cube near the crab when I see it going after a coral - the crab initially backs away from the tongs, but then goes ravenous picking at the formula one cube. I've found formula one holds together much better than the other cubes, allowing the crab to really pick off of it and eat it before it dissolves into my tank. Mono, I'm not sure of your tank size, but you could break the cube in half instead of using a whole cube if you have a smaller tank and not many other critters to clean up the left overs.

And Ulta, I've got to say that I've watched my Emerald crab scuttle across the tank very quickly, and eat my corals if he didn't get enough food.
 
I drop in some pellets @ night to feed my CUC. The other fish don't really respond to the pellets so they all drop to the bottom. I've seen my emeralds picking at my coral but it's mostly cleaning micro algae in between polyps or dead tissue off of LPS that have been knocked over. I've never had an experience with then killing anything but I could see them killing fish or shrimp. However, is it an emerald or a gorilla grab? Gorillas have distinctive hairy, pointy claws and are known predators.

I think it's IGNORANT to not believe that people experience different behaviors in their livestock. Just because it hasn't happened to you doesn't mean it hasnt happened to someone else, especially in this hobby.
 
Fishy my tank is a 56 gallon that I got from petsmart. It's not a 56 long though it's in a cube shape. Where did you get your long tongs? I'm probably gonna need some in the future to feed corals.

I guess my next question is this then. I have this overflow box from Marine Depot.com. It's a great box but the slits in it have sucked in all the food like pellets and flakes that I put in the tank. I've also been feeding mysis and brine which do just fine. But is there any way to stop the pellets and flakes from being sucked into the overflow...that's what I used to feed the crabs in my 10 gallon. And they are all emerald crabs Adept. They are green with hairy legs, nifty little crab, just apparently hungry.
CPR CS150 Overflow Box
 
Fishy my tank is a 56 gallon that I got from petsmart. It's not a 56 long though it's in a cube shape. Where did you get your long tongs? I'm probably gonna need some in the future to feed corals.

I guess my next question is this then. I have this overflow box from Marine Depot.com. It's a great box but the slits in it have sucked in all the food like pellets and flakes that I put in the tank. I've also been feeding mysis and brine which do just fine. But is there any way to stop the pellets and flakes from being sucked into the overflow...that's what I used to feed the crabs in my 10 gallon. And they are all emerald crabs Adept. They are green with hairy legs, nifty little crab, just apparently hungry.
CPR CS150 Overflow Box

You can shut off your return pump for a few minutes to let the food sink. Do you have a siphon hole drilled in your return @ the water level?
 
Fishy my tank is a 56 gallon that I got from petsmart. It's not a 56 long though it's in a cube shape. Where did you get your long tongs? I'm probably gonna need some in the future to feed corals.

I guess my next question is this then. I have this overflow box from Marine Depot.com. It's a great box but the slits in it have sucked in all the food like pellets and flakes that I put in the tank. I've also been feeding mysis and brine which do just fine. But is there any way to stop the pellets and flakes from being sucked into the overflow...that's what I used to feed the crabs in my 10 gallon. And they are all emerald crabs Adept. They are green with hairy legs, nifty little crab, just apparently hungry.
CPR CS150 Overflow Box

I have seen the tongs at PetSmart. I am about to buy some.
 
The return pump isn't the problem. It's the actual overflow box. The return pump shoots everything around I guess, but as soon as it gets over to the overflow box is when it gets sucked into the little slits for water to flow through. I do have a little hole drilled in the return. I don't want any overflowing in my sump at all lol
 
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