Evil emerald crabs!

BTL · 06-05-2001, 08:30 PM

I was watching the invert tank at the local fish store and i watched one of these things attack and kill a small serpent star (that i want to buy none the less). I was also thinking about the emrald crabs to use as part of my clean up crew but after seeing that i am not sure, if they do that to a star fish i cant imagine what they would do to my tank! Anyone else have problems with these? I have seen them marketed as reef safe but i really dont think that is true.

Andy

junkzoo · 06-05-2001, 08:37 PM

yup, seems that once they get a "taste" of other than what you want them to eat(or run out of ) these guys will eat up stuff you want to keep! lost a feather duster and part of a trumpet coral b4 i remove almost all rockwork from my 75 to extract two of three emeralds i had in there for clean-up,had stuff to clean up on ,but chose to go for the good stuff! "reef-safe"? ,not hardly IMO

tomt · 06-06-2001, 12:43 AM

I agree w junkzoo

I watched my emerald crab eat at my lthr. coral and even pick at my sponge! I don't think I'll get another one. He did however do the job he was bought to do was get rid of bubble alge. That was months ago and they are hard to remove from the tank! good Luck Tom

Bojinx · 06-06-2001, 08:33 AM

I had one attack my BTA, clawing at it's tentacles. I had just fed the anemone some silversides and the crab wanted them. It was proptly returned to the LFS.

JRoweNole · 06-06-2001, 09:14 PM

O.K. guys/gals, you've got me concerned now. I have had three emerald crabs in my 92 gallon tank for about 6 months without any problems (so far). How in the heck did you catch yours/!!!!

Thank you.

tomt · 06-06-2001, 10:25 PM

I could not catch the emerald!!!

So, for now I moved my lthr coral to my other reef tank. I might have to take out all the rock and put the rock in pails of saltwater, then try to catch him.....

junkzoo · 06-06-2001, 10:26 PM

to the above post,,, how do you feel about re-arranging the whole tank? pretty much what i had to do ,remove 80%of the livestock and LR to remove the lil' buggers ,after i saw the biggest one munching on my trumpet coral ,(would have not fingered the emerald as the culprit ,if i had not seen it doing it .) wife said get those %&#@'ers out of there!no problem dear ,,wanted to re-stack all this rock anyway!(needless to say the crabs were "food" for the FO tank, trigger had a time with this one

)$5 a piece is bad enough ,i did NOT want to offer them to my fish ,but in the long run ,the corals cost more and are more important to us than the crabs,if they only ate what i put them in there for!

if you can get the bugger out in the open ,good luck ,otherwise you gotta get into the tank and remove stuff,(found the second one in the LR i had put in styro's .....

popcorn · 06-06-2001, 11:03 PM

I wonder if ours haven't "gone to the dark side" as well.

A few months ago, we fragged a beautiful yellow leather and some yellow polyps. Two days later, both baby leathers were gone. One of the new sets of polyps recently disappeared overnight, too.

When we move and subsequently rearrange, they (and some now-massive hermits) will go into the FO or back to the LFS. It's just so hard to catch them in the act...

tomt · 06-06-2001, 11:11 PM

I think Junkzoo would agree with me in that you will know when an emerlad has gone EVIL! I sat there and watched him eat the edges of the lthrlike it was candy! That was it, so I tried for an hour to move him with no luck. My only choice for now is to save the lthr. coral by placing it in another tank...

junkzoo · 06-07-2001, 12:57 AM

tomt,yep you are right, had i not seen it happen i would not have believe it to be the emeralds.

.but i did and now 2 out of 3 are gone!(saw the other one the other day,,,so far so good. it think it knows what happened to the other ones and it is on it's best behavior

.)reef safe?,,,, not always

Elmo18 · 06-07-2001, 02:31 AM

I've got 3 emerald crabs in my 80 gallon tank, and they have touched nothing. In fact, they were all frommy 25 gallon tank, and in that small tank they never bothered a thing.

Currently, my sump is empty of "bad inverts"

Regards,
Ilham

Skipper · 06-07-2001, 03:21 PM

Here's an idea to catch the buggers! Get a clean jar and bait it with a shrimp weighted to the bottom. After lights out, place the jar next to a rock so the Emerald can crawl down into it. Once he gets in, he won't be able to get back out and it will be a simple matter of removing the jar. You'll probably catch a few other things, too.

tomt · 06-07-2001, 11:34 PM

Thanks Skipp For the idea, I will give it a try this weekend and let you know how it goes.

vtec si · 06-08-2001, 02:38 PM

tomt,

Do what the skipper tells you to do!

It worked for catching my sally light foot!

VTEC

ddangg · 06-08-2001, 04:58 PM

If the jar trick doesn't work, here's something that may. Put a piece of live rock with a nice sized hole in it on your sand bed, near your LR formations, but not supporting anything. Make sure that you can see into the hole. With any luck, the crab will hide there one morning, and you can just pull out that piece of rock and rid yourself of the little bugger. I stumbled onto this once when I was rearanging my rockwork, and left a piece out. The next morning, the rock crab that I'd been trying to get out of my tank for months was peering out of the loose piece of rock, and now he lives in my sump.

HTH,

Dan

DoryLover23 · 02-20-2008, 10:14 PM

So I am p***ed off!!!

I have had my emerald crab in my 24g nano tank for about 4 1/2 months now. 2 days ago I got a few feather dusters, a christmas tree one that luckily barely comes out and a pink and white one...I dont know what kind! Last night I turn on my light to take a peek at my fish and I notice that my Effin emerald is wrapped around my pink and white feather duster worm and is slowly pulling him out of his tube! So the longer the light was on the faster that dang emerald pulls the fd worm out so I cant find it anywhere and it was late so my husband tries to find it in the morning and sure enough the feather part of it is stuck to the filter at the top of the tank, the whole 8" long worm is completely GONE!!!! I tried to tell my husband that he was evil a while ago when my fish would mysteriously die for no reason and I would wake up and see the crabs at it, now I know thats what they do after a fish is dead but I just had a bad feeling about it, I have had a baby blue tang and a few baby clown fish and the emerald had it IN MY FACE in the morning facing upright like it was alive....THAT LITTLE B****RD!!!

I KNEW HE WAS GOOD FOR NOTHING!!!

Samper · 02-20-2008, 10:48 PM

Can you tell me what size it is and get some good pictures?

DoryLover23 · 02-20-2008, 11:10 PM

He's very hard to find and especially get a pic of......He is only about an inch!

Samper · 02-21-2008, 12:14 AM

If it happens again I'd love to see the picture.

Live Rock Ricky · 02-21-2008, 07:35 AM

i just pulled this off one of the sites for you guys... i see you have had different results...

Green Emerald Crabs are reef-safe algae eaters and an excellent addition to your cleaner crew. They are one of the few inverts that will eat nuisance bubble algae which makes them very popular among reef keepers. They have dull tipped claws that they use to pick various types of algae from the rockwork. They are wonderful crabs to observe with beautiful green bumpy bodies and brown hairy legs, a great crab for any reef! We rec'd 1 per 25 gallons

06-05-2001, 08:30 PM	#1
BTL Citizen Join Date: May 2001 Location: Pittsburgh, PA Posts: 208	Evil emerald crabs! I was watching the invert tank at the local fish store and i watched one of these things attack and kill a small serpent star (that i want to buy none the less). I was also thinking about the emrald crabs to use as part of my clean up crew but after seeing that i am not sure, if they do that to a star fish i cant imagine what they would do to my tank! Anyone else have problems with these? I have seen them marketed as reef safe but i really dont think that is true. Andy __________________ Violence Begets Violence! Dont fuel the deadly circle! CHOOSE PEACE!

06-06-2001, 08:33 AM	#4
Bojinx Mayor Join Date: Aug 2000 Location: Galena, Maryland Posts: 913	I had one attack my BTA, clawing at it's tentacles. I had just fed the anemone some silversides and the crab wanted them. It was proptly returned to the LFS. __________________ jImMy "Watching fate as it flows down the path we have chose" "...Never thought to question 'Why'?" "Everything's so Blurry and Everyone's so fake" pAz LeNcHaNtIn... oh how i wish...

06-07-2001, 03:21 PM	#12
Skipper Mayor Join Date: Jun 2000 Location: Hattiesburg, MS, USA Posts: 511	Here's an idea to catch the buggers! Get a clean jar and bait it with a shrimp weighted to the bottom. After lights out, place the jar next to a rock so the Emerald can crawl down into it. Once he gets in, he won't be able to get back out and it will be a simple matter of removing the jar. You'll probably catch a few other things, too. __________________ Reefkeeping Magazine Managing Editor

02-20-2008, 10:14 PM	#16
DoryLover23 New in Town Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: California Posts: 2	Re: Evil emerald crabs! So I am p*ed off!!! I have had my emerald crab in my 24g nano tank for about 4 1/2 months now. 2 days ago I got a few feather dusters, a christmas tree one that luckily barely comes out and a pink and white one...I dont know what kind! Last night I turn on my light to take a peek at my fish and I notice that my Effin emerald is wrapped around my pink and white feather duster worm and is slowly pulling him out of his tube! So the longer the light was on the faster that dang emerald pulls the fd worm out so I cant find it anywhere and it was late so my husband tries to find it in the morning and sure enough the feather part of it is stuck to the filter at the top of the tank, the whole 8" long worm is completely GONE!!!! I tried to tell my husband that he was evil a while ago when my fish would mysteriously die for no reason and I would wake up and see the crabs at it, now I know thats what they do after a fish is dead but I just had a bad feeling about it, I have had a baby blue tang and a few baby clown fish and the emerald had it IN MY FACE in the morning facing upright like it was alive....THAT LITTLE B**RD!!! I KNEW HE WAS GOOD FOR NOTHING!!!

02-20-2008, 10:48 PM	#17
Samper Contributing Member Join Date: May 2004 Location: Arkansas Posts: 3,761	Re: Evil emerald crabs! Can you tell me what size it is and get some good pictures? __________________ Keep your heart pure conceive your own dreams Respect your fellow man the earth and the trees.

06-05-2001, 08:37 PM	#2
junkzoo Citizen Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: Wheatfield,In. US Posts: 113	yup, seems that once they get a "taste" of other than what you want them to eat(or run out of ) these guys will eat up stuff you want to keep! lost a feather duster and part of a trumpet coral b4 i remove almost all rockwork from my 75 to extract two of three emeralds i had in there for clean-up,had stuff to clean up on ,but chose to go for the good stuff! "reef-safe"? ,not hardly IMO

06-06-2001, 12:43 AM	#3
tomt Tenant Join Date: May 2001 Location: scottsdale az Posts: 83	I agree w junkzoo I watched my emerald crab eat at my lthr. coral and even pick at my sponge! I don't think I'll get another one. He did however do the job he was bought to do was get rid of bubble alge. That was months ago and they are hard to remove from the tank! good Luck Tom

06-06-2001, 09:14 PM	#5
JRoweNole Tenant Join Date: Nov 2000 Posts: 67	O.K. guys/gals, you've got me concerned now. I have had three emerald crabs in my 92 gallon tank for about 6 months without any problems (so far). How in the heck did you catch yours/!!!! Thank you.

06-06-2001, 10:25 PM	#6
tomt Tenant Join Date: May 2001 Location: scottsdale az Posts: 83	I could not catch the emerald!!! So, for now I moved my lthr coral to my other reef tank. I might have to take out all the rock and put the rock in pails of saltwater, then try to catch him.....

06-06-2001, 10:26 PM	#7
junkzoo Citizen Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: Wheatfield,In. US Posts: 113	to the above post,,, how do you feel about re-arranging the whole tank? pretty much what i had to do ,remove 80%of the livestock and LR to remove the lil' buggers ,after i saw the biggest one munching on my trumpet coral ,(would have not fingered the emerald as the culprit ,if i had not seen it doing it .) wife said get those %&#@'ers out of there!no problem dear ,,wanted to re-stack all this rock anyway!(needless to say the crabs were "food" for the FO tank, trigger had a time with this one )$5 a piece is bad enough ,i did NOT want to offer them to my fish ,but in the long run ,the corals cost more and are more important to us than the crabs,if they only ate what i put them in there for! if you can get the bugger out in the open ,good luck ,otherwise you gotta get into the tank and remove stuff,(found the second one in the LR i had put in styro's .....

06-06-2001, 11:03 PM	#8
popcorn Citizen Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Lenexa, KS USA Posts: 191	I wonder if ours haven't "gone to the dark side" as well. A few months ago, we fragged a beautiful yellow leather and some yellow polyps. Two days later, both baby leathers were gone. One of the new sets of polyps recently disappeared overnight, too. When we move and subsequently rearrange, they (and some now-massive hermits) will go into the FO or back to the LFS. It's just so hard to catch them in the act...

06-06-2001, 11:11 PM	#9
tomt Tenant Join Date: May 2001 Location: scottsdale az Posts: 83	I think Junkzoo would agree with me in that you will know when an emerlad has gone EVIL! I sat there and watched him eat the edges of the lthrlike it was candy! That was it, so I tried for an hour to move him with no luck. My only choice for now is to save the lthr. coral by placing it in another tank...

06-07-2001, 12:57 AM	#10
junkzoo Citizen Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: Wheatfield,In. US Posts: 113	tomt,yep you are right, had i not seen it happen i would not have believe it to be the emeralds. .but i did and now 2 out of 3 are gone!(saw the other one the other day,,,so far so good. it think it knows what happened to the other ones and it is on it's best behavior .)reef safe?,,,, not always

06-07-2001, 02:31 AM	#11
Elmo18 Governor Join Date: Feb 2001 Location: Seattle, WA Posts: 1,514	I've got 3 emerald crabs in my 80 gallon tank, and they have touched nothing. In fact, they were all frommy 25 gallon tank, and in that small tank they never bothered a thing. Currently, my sump is empty of "bad inverts" Regards, Ilham

06-07-2001, 11:34 PM	#13
tomt Tenant Join Date: May 2001 Location: scottsdale az Posts: 83	Thanks Skipp For the idea, I will give it a try this weekend and let you know how it goes.

Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)

06-08-2001, 02:38 PM	#14
vtec si Governor Join Date: Feb 2001 Location: Denver co, USA Posts: 1,017	tomt, Do what the skipper tells you to do! It worked for catching my sally light foot! VTEC

06-08-2001, 04:58 PM	#15
ddangg Just Moved In Join Date: May 2001 Posts: 6	If the jar trick doesn't work, here's something that may. Put a piece of live rock with a nice sized hole in it on your sand bed, near your LR formations, but not supporting anything. Make sure that you can see into the hole. With any luck, the crab will hide there one morning, and you can just pull out that piece of rock and rid yourself of the little bugger. I stumbled onto this once when I was rearanging my rockwork, and left a piece out. The next morning, the rock crab that I'd been trying to get out of my tank for months was peering out of the loose piece of rock, and now he lives in my sump. HTH, Dan

02-20-2008, 11:10 PM	#18
DoryLover23 New in Town Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: California Posts: 2	Re: Evil emerald crabs! He's very hard to find and especially get a pic of......He is only about an inch!

02-21-2008, 12:14 AM	#19
Samper Contributing Member Join Date: May 2004 Location: Arkansas Posts: 3,761	Re: Evil emerald crabs! If it happens again I'd love to see the picture. __________________ Keep your heart pure conceive your own dreams Respect your fellow man the earth and the trees.

02-21-2008, 07:35 AM	#20
Live Rock Ricky Citizen Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Norton, MA Posts: 128	Re: Evil emerald crabs! i just pulled this off one of the sites for you guys... i see you have had different results... Green Emerald Crabs are reef-safe algae eaters and an excellent addition to your cleaner crew. They are one of the few inverts that will eat nuisance bubble algae which makes them very popular among reef keepers. They have dull tipped claws that they use to pick various types of algae from the rockwork. They are wonderful crabs to observe with beautiful green bumpy bodies and brown hairy legs, a great crab for any reef! We rec'd 1 per 25 gallons

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