Emerald Crabs

[Eric Noa]

Well I have like 7 of them in my thank and I also have a Frogspawn. The crabs have been eating the base of the frogspawn closed to one of the heads of the frogspawn... What can I do to make them stop other than taking them out which would be impossible unless I break down the tank which Im not looking forward on doing.

 

[yote]

Their probably just picking algae off the coral.

 

[Eric Noa]

No they have eaten the branch.... If they keep on eating it it will break off thats how bad it is.. It wasn't like that when I bought and the crabs are always in the same place just eating it.

 

[yote]

HMMMM

Thats the first I've heard of that happening.
I guess the best thing to do,would be to pull the crabs as you see them on the frogspawn.That would at least be better than tearing the tank downto get them.

Is it emeralds or hermits?

 

[Eric Noa]

Emerald... The hermits don't really go on the frogspawn... I will try to post a picture tomorrow cause the lights are off now

 

[yote]

Thats odd.

You'll have fun pulling them loose.When they get hold,they really get hold.You'll actually pull the crab in 2 before they let go.

 

[Eric Noa]

Do hermit crabs tend to do what my Emerald crabs are doing?

 

[yote]

Well,Its usually the hermits that cause the most problems.

 

[Bifferwine]

That's a lot of emerald crabs for a tank your size. I'd think 2 would be enough. Do they have other food? It sounds to me like they're starving.

 

[dcantucson]

+1 Biff. I can't imagine that the skeleton of the coral would be very tasty. Try feeding them some with a few pellets of mysis shrimp. They gotta just be hungry.

 

[beano]

i think they are probably really hungry like biff said.

its like the donner party, they didnt taste good either but they were starving

 

[Eric Noa]

Yea I think biff is right... I did some research and I have more than enough. The good news is that I have already taken 3 out and it was pretty easy. I got them by surprise. lol

 

[Eric Noa]

Well today I took my Frogspawn out and made it into two Frogspawn because I wanted to move it from where it was to see if they crabs stop eating it (I know they can just go to where they are now but maybe they'll stop) I have to snap the branch into two pieces because in order to move it I had to do that because it didn't fit anywhere else how it was.

Now you can see how the crabs have been eating it. Here are a couple of pictures. This is just one of the two pieces. I took the pictures minutes after I cut them. I'll post pictures of it when it's fully open.

 

[yote]

Now THATs a healthy frogspawn.I can see 13 new heads in the pic.:D

 

[Eric Noa]

It has more on the other side.... I counted like 23 in total on that piece. The other piece has about the same amount.

Im surprise is that healthy because those crabs beat the shit out of them.

 

[dcantucson]

Very cool Eric. I see what you're talking about on the trunk. Must have been something tasty on there for the Hermits to go after it. Still strange.

 

[Eric Noa]

Pictures from today.... They have open a little bit more.

The other piece

 

[dcantucson]

That looks good Eric. It opened up nicely.