Anyone have bad experiences with Emerald Crabs?

[NanoKat]

I'm not sure if he's the culprit, but I've been having some strange goings on since I got rid of one little culprit (a "lobster"). This time it seems to be my emerald crab. I know he's been fighting with someone because he's missing one claw. Then today I finally see my white claw hermit after a while and he's missing his white claw and a feeder claw. This just makes me mad...I thought the emerald would stick to the green stuff...but he hardly touches it. I think he's also acquired a taste for my softies, as I saw him "accidentally" take a bite out of a shroom one nite, then I had some xenia dissappear and now I think he's gotten my safecrackers...egads!

I have a trap in the tank overnight to see if I can catch the little bugger...trouble is, I keep catching my peppermint shrimp and hermits.

I don't think anything else could be doing this, but here's what else I have in there:

Mated Banded Coral Shrimp Pair
Firefish
Watchman Goby
Whiteclaw Hermit
Blue Legged Hermits
Sally Lightfoot Crab
Peppermint Shrimp (3)
Nassarius Snails
Astrea Snails

Oh yeah, and my scissortail dartfish is also "missing"...he used to hang out where the emerald does...hmm...don't think he jumped...haven't found anything around the tank.

 

[dadummy]

we had a few emerald crabs that turned bad, if i remeber right it was the males that were doing the destruction, we did take them back to the lfs. I remeber removing the rocks that they were on to get them out,

good luck

 

[Kewlworm]

Safecracker!? Cannibal (not exactly, but you get it)!!!

I caught my sally lightfoot snacking on my mushroom one day and I took him out the next night. I was lucky cause I was trying to catch this fish first then him, but after I took out my fish and was putting the LR back I saw him in one of the LR. I don't put any crabs in there anymore.

Personally, I would take each suspect out and see what happen for the next days to find the "murderer." I think it has to be one of the crabs. Good luck!

 

[nmprisons]

my emerald snacked on my mushrooms

 

[chrisaggie]

I have seen emerald crabs tear xenia and zoanthids apart just for fun!

 

[NanoKat]

Chris...just the guy to see this thread! Man, I have no luck whatsoever with safecrackers...I'm looking to see if maybe the little rock fell somewhere else, but I think I found it and it had nothing on it! I'm redoing my rock soon, so I'll do a more thorough check when I do that.

Anyway, the problem may be solved. I made a nano size "trap" of home-made incarnation and it worked! I caught another peppermint shrimp and my white claw hermit, but I noticed the emerald crab in there quickly, so they didn't have to stay together overnite (the emerald probably would have killed both). I now have him in a "holding pen" in the tank until I decide what to do with him. And I do mean "him"...if sexing emeralds is the same at the blue crabs I grew up eating...he's definitely a male. The openig on the bottom of his carapace is more narrow and not triangular shaped like the females I would guess would be.

And if anyone needs to make this trap, here's what I do...

-Remove the lid and cut the top portion off an appropriate sized plastic liquid container (I needed a small water bottle to fit between my rocks and glass in my nano)

-Take this cut off portion and turn it so that the narrow part goes inside the rest of the bottle

-I attach a fishing line through both parts by punching a hole through...they should stay together pretty well otherwise with tension and running enough length to run out of the tank for quick retrieval

-Put in appropriate spot in tank where the critter likes to hang out and run the line out and secure

Hopefully this solves this problem. Now I'll have to keep an eye on that sally lightfoot

 

[CiroFuentes22]

i had a big problem wit my emrald crab. he somehow cot on to my stripped damsil and killed it. and started eating it and when ever the female would come around to take a bit at it hewould fight her and then 5 mins later she would comw back and try again. so it could be him.

 

[NanoKat]

Free to any home besides mine; one male Emerald Crab, missing one claw. May be dangerous to softies and other critters in tank...take at your own risk.

I have him in a "holding pen" until I figure out what to do with him. Hubby says they are indigenous...so we could dump him in the inlet or something...hmm...

I don't know if anyone would seriously want him...maybe for a refugium or something. I'll bring to the next meeting if anyone does want him...he'll be fine in his jail cell until then.

 

[NanoKat]

Well, the hubby has generously offered to give the little guy a "ride." He's going to the Keys tomorrow and will give the crab a new life in the canal behind our friend's house down there. That is, of course, unless he gets eaten by some larger creature.

And Chris...I found my safecrackers...and they are "safe!" I have jammed them into a space on one of the rocks at the top until I rearrange and then will glue the piece down. I've been reluctant to glue anything recently because I need some new base rock to build up my pile with. I'm not happy with my little barnacles anymore.

Here's a couple of pics I took of them tonite...
Under 10K's

And under Actinic