Emerald crabs- not safe for SPS
- Thread starter zooty
- Start date
sahin
Ultimate Reefer
I have one in my tank at the moment. He cleared the tank of bubble algae. He doesnt eat the sps. I had them in previous tanks too. In a previous tank one went on a rampage ripping apart soft coral and sponges-but that was because I wasn't feeding the tank much due to water issues. If there is no food what do you expect them to do? So all in all they are safe. In any event they are pretty easy to catch if they start to cause problems.
gjh289
1*
My Emerald has eatten three colonies of Zoas. I found him one night (just as the third disappeared) after the lights were out cutting the bases of each polyp and munching on them like they were ice cream cones. I admit my feeding at the time was light because I only have a few small fish and mostly SPS/LPS with a couple softies. Once I started feeding a bit more and paying more attention to the others besides the fish this behavior stopped.
sahin
Ultimate Reefer
That is exactly my experiance. If the poor things dont have any food to eat what else can it do but try and eat soft corals or polyps.
I wish mine would eat my zoas! Mine have always been completely harmless to coral.
israel.kendall
Padawan Reefer
I have an emerald crab that's made its home in a birdsnest, kinda like an acro crab, and he doesn't bother it at all.
SaltwaterAdict
New member
Very strange, I've never seen or heard emerald crabs eating corals. They just eat algae from my understanding. If you don't have any algae in your dt it would be a good idea not to get one as it will starve.
I had 5 in my 45 gallon to help finish off the remaining algae after a cycle. They will eat sps, zoas, etc. if they run out of food to eat. I took a few of them out and placed them in my 95 gallon after they started eating my Ice Fire Echinata, Jedi Mind Trick, and a few others. They didn't do any major damage to the colonies, but they'll eat the tips or tissue off the sps. I believe they're trying to get algae. Now I just make sure they get some mysis when I feed my chalices and haven't had any problems with them recently.
Gary Majchrzak
Team RC
emerals are pretty easy to catch if you need a divorce.....................
thelostrican
I hate to post
Lol
JSeymour
New member
That is the nice thing about emeralds, they always seem to be out and about.
I have emeralds in almost every tank of mine, never a real problem, but all of my tanks get fed three plus times a day. Any hungry crab will eat coral flesh.
I have a large male that loves to hang in any branchy coral. I've noticed, on occasion, that there will be a small bare spot when he moves away(from eating, damaging, or outright irritating the coral). Within a day or so, a new branch will start from that spot. So I guess you could say, he helps the corals grow.
OnceTrueFalseBr
New member
I usually drop in half an algae wafer)about 1/4 inch for the inverts and crabs 2 - 3x a week, during my fish feeding. this way the clean up crew doesn't resort to attacking anything that I dont want on their menu, and cleaning house!
OnceTrueFalseBr
New member
That is the nice thing about emeralds, they always seem to be out and about.
I have emeralds in almost every tank of mine, never a real problem, but all of my tanks get fed three plus times a day. Any hungry crab will eat coral flesh.
I have a large male that loves to hang in any branchy coral. I've noticed, on occasion, that there will be a small bare spot when he moves away(from eating, damaging, or outright irritating the coral). Within a day or so, a new branch will start from that spot. So I guess you could say, he helps the corals grow.
it cant be any worse than fragging an entire branch off right?
bulet
New member
didn't work for me..
http://youtu.be/_Pv-WOI3LVk
http://youtu.be/_Pv-WOI3LVk
After watching that 20 sec video, I wouldn't say its eating your coral. Maybe trying to pick algae off it.
