Have emerald crabs attacked/eaten lps corals before?

[Treezer8]

I came home tonight, and decided to check on my frogspawn that wasn't looking its best the past few days. After I turned my light on, I noticed that there was an emerald crab sitting on one of the heads, nestled in the polyps. I watched him for several minutes, but he didn't pick at anything on the frogspawn.

Should I be worried?
Should he go into my mantis shrimps tank as lunch?(Which means a video)
Or is this just a coincidence, and is he fine?

 

[Treezer8]

Almost forgot, here's the pic.

 

[Salty B]

I had 1 that would tear up orange bam bam zoas and Xenia whenever I fed the tank. Like it was pulling weeds out of the garden. Then I've had a couple that were perfect little tank mates. The one that did the damage was also huge. Maybe they become more unpredictable the larger they are...not sure. I think of them as hit or miss.

 

[Paste]

Mine stands on the richordia to pick at the rocks under and around it, found him climbing my kenyans once ... never has hurt any of the corals though he certianly seems to like standing on them.

 

[bjohanson1234]

What kind of lighting do you run? What are your tank parameters?

I think we need to rule out the typical causes first then work on other possible reasons the frog spawn isn't doing well.

 

[AdamC]

Are they aren't getting enough food. Try dropping pellets. They typically scavenge off of rocks and whatever else is in the tank.

 

[poksal]

Are they aren't getting enough food. Try dropping pellets. They typically scavenge off of rocks and whatever else is in the tank.

..wait... emerald crabs eat what pellets?.. I don't know about this pellet... there is always something new to keep learning.

what else are the pellets good for? and .. what are the cons?

 

[bjohanson1234]

Pellets and other dry foods can cause phosphate issues. Emeralds will eat any food dropped in the tank.

IMO, no need to specifically feed them. They are scavengers and will eat left over food that you normally feed.

 

[poksal]

Pellets and other dry foods can cause phosphate issues. Emeralds will eat any food dropped in the tank.

IMO, no need to specifically feed them. They are scavengers and will eat left over food that you normally feed.

..was what I thought.. didn't think so..
..making sure I hadn't missed something.

 

[baeya]

LOL Randy!! You're just a super sponge for information!! I learn a lot from you!

 

[poksal]

LOL Randy!! You're just a super sponge for information!! I learn a lot from you!

..yeah... maybe.. I'm afflicted with IS...(information sickness).. LOL..

.. actually.. if am wondering or needing to know more about a subject, in life or at a forum, I figure there will be 10 to 50 others who just lurk and need to know the same thing. So, on a forum, I let my fingers do the asking and don't mind one bit making a fool of myself for the sake of group learning.

When I do Wild Life lectures I use the same gimmicky methods and generally get rave reviews... so I "guess" it works ok. ...:dunno:

 

[Salty B]

Mithrax crabs are omnivores and if not fed and run out of available food, do have the capacity to turn on corals and even small fish. Check out Mithrax crabs here Aquarium Invertebrates: Crabs in the Marine Aquarium — Advanced Aquarist | Aquarist Magazine and Blog

 

[poksal]

Mithrax crabs are omnivores and if not fed and run out of available food, do have the capacity to turn on corals and even small fish. Check out Mithrax crabs here Aquarium Invertebrates: Crabs in the Marine Aquarium — Advanced Aquarist | Aquarist Magazine and Blog

Thanx.. another good read

 

[AdamC]

I use pellets in my 75 and dont have a problem. nothing wrong with dropping a few in there with regular food. they sink to the bottom and everything eats them its not like you are introducing that much waste. If you are afraid of waste then feed less of one and add pellets into the mix, a good variety of food for reefs are great.

 

[AmberSunrise]

Mine will irritate my star polyps by sitting in them and picking between the polyps but he has never eaten the coral and they always come back out when he leaves. It is just cleaning in and around the coral.

 

[Treezer8]

Forgot about this haha

Looks like the emerald crab was just sleeping in the frogspawn.
It was splitting a new head and thats why it looked irritated, looks healthy as can be right now.