RED......Emerald Crab?????

casingbill

casingbill

New member
I picked up an "emerald crab" at the lfs the other day and he's red?....Is this right? The guy that got him out of the tank even remarked.."why is he red?"
 
Emerald crabs aren't red. There a crab called "red emerald" that might be Mithraforceps, if I remember the genus correctly. In any case, I wouldn't keep it in my tank.
 
oh...heck no!!...ive only caught glimpses of him 2x since i put him in on wednesday....lol

he was the same similar size and shape as the green one but not 100% sure
 
ok...so i found this on wetwebmedia

"Crab ID please 9/29/03
Is a "red ridged clinging crab" reef and clam safe?
like the green cling/emerald crab Mithraculus sculptus... M. forceps, the red cling crab, is not entirely reef safe. Most all crabs are opportunistic omnivores. With abundant algae in the tank, they appear to behave... but in lean times, the will prey on desirable reef animals. Anthony"

so i am going to leave him in for the moment since i have no corals or anything
 
I got a red one recently from my LFS too. I have not seen any behavior difference between the red and the green.
 
Most of the time when I've seen them diving, they're picking peacefully at algae and they hide when you get near, but some of the larger individuals (a few inches across) have even been aggressive toward me. I certainly wouldn't add one to my tank.
 
I picked up a hitchhiker on some rock it was shaped like an emerald but was striped red and white and its claws had black tips. Ever seen one,what is it???
 
[welcome]

Crabs are very hard to identify. Coloration often doesn't help all that much. A picture might help determine the basic group, though.
 
I had a red mithrax that looked and behaved exactly like a green emerald... until he reached his fourth or fifth moult. Once he got big he was nothing but trouble -- he was very well fed (I spot fed him to try and keep him from bothering the corals or snails) but it didn't make a difference. About 48h after his last moult, he mowed down a patch of GSP, stalks of Xenia, and a few zoas within a matter of hours. Shortly thereafter I tore apart the tank to catch him and returned him to the LFS for credit. They couldn't believe how big he was, and how fast he'd grown. I made sure to tell them he was NOT reef safe, and later found that he'd gone to someone with a nice big FOWLR. I met the owner of the FOWLR a few months later and asked after the crab... turns out he bought a trigger without realizing they eat inverts, and that was the end of Hercules the crab! I admit I felt a certain justice had been served :)

Here's a pic of him when he was just a little guy. I'm convinced he had something to do with the snail's death and wasn't just cleaning up.

mithrax.jpg
 
well at this point, i almost never see him and i have no corals either. i am just going to watch for him and make sure he behaves himself.
 
i found him....eating a "i'm pretty sure he was already dead" snail. I've had a couple of the black trochus die already
 
Going to be trouble......even emeralds are Problematic.
As mentioned multiple times above, they will eat ANYTHING they can catch.
As long as you don't care about it eating stuff in your tank....then no problem....otherwise out,
 
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