??? clean up crew ????

[ou_snr_fn]

hi guys i am new to the saltwater world and will be the first to admit i know nothing about this but i have read alot and am jumping in head first. my question is what is everyone's opinion on the emerald crabs i let my fiance pick out a clean up crew for our tank which is a 90 gal with 55lbs lr and 120lbs ls all readings are good and she ordered 2 emerald crabs 20 scarlet 10 zebre 10 blue leg crabs and 1 cbs 1 cleaner shrimp and after 1 night i have 3 less scarlets due to the emerald crab i suppose because i caught him with one in his mouth. should i move him to my refugium???any suggestions??

 

[airforceb2]

First off, welcome to the boards and the hobby!!
Now for business...
How old is your tank? Please post your readings so we can see if they really are fine or not. Your emerald may not have killed the scarlet...he may have been doing his job and cleaning up the mess of a dead crab due to poor water conditions.

 

[ou_snr_fn]

my tank has been up and running for about 8 weeks now i set it up mixed all the water and let it run for about a week before my live sand arrived. when sand arrived i added it to my tank also added "hair algea" to the refugium part of my tank. i then orered my live rock which is marshall island it was precured and had some die off so i scrubbbed it as i was scrubbing it i didn't smell anything like it was dead or anything like that but i did notice some life in it including the ever famous bristle worms a teddy bear crab and saveral clams which are still alive today also noticed some feather dusters tank has been cycling for 4 weeks and i just added the clean up crew yesterday
it is a 90 galon with a 20gal refugium and a protien skimmer in it
readings are
ammonia under.25 never went to zero think it is my tests
ph 8.3
nitrite0
nitrate20
calcium not sure i need to get a tester
spacific gravity 1.022

 

[airforceb2]

Ok, Ammonia is most likely your test kit. Aquarium Pharm is known for not reading 0. Salifert is a good brand to get.
SG is a little low for inverts. I would up that to about 1.025.
Also, how did you acclimate the clean-up crew?

 

[ou_snr_fn]

i acclimated as directed by this site except i took bout 4.5 hrs in the bucket of water with slow drip before i put everything in my tank i am really wondering bout these emeraol crabs because they attacked the scarlets from the get go at one point i seperated them. and i went to work i work from 7pm to 7 am came home and there was 3 empty scarlet shells with one of them lying dead below my rock and a emorald crab eating on him would it be a good idea to get rid of them i have no explanation for why they were dead ty for the info i will get the sg up a little

 

[airforceb2]

Hmmm...interesting. I'm stumped.

 

[sw-newbe]

I had the almost the same problem. I have a 55 that only has a cleanup crew in it. I came home from work and found the bottom of the tank littered with red claws. My blues seem to be ok and the cbs is ok. I still have a handful of the scarlet claw hermits. I guess i'll just see how it goes from here.

 

[cbarnes]

I had an emerald crab that ate ALOT of my cleaners---ie, snails and hermits. Could not get the sucker from under neath a rock he made a nice burrow under. Finally had to use boiling h2o to get him out and do the unthinkable. I figured it cost less that way then keep replacing the rest of my cleaning crew. JMO
CMB

 

[ithorian_r]

just a thought - since your tank is that young, could they be attacking each other b/c of lack of algae/food? are you providing any kind of food source for them? just a thought any other comments on this would be welcome...

 

[sw-newbe]

Nope. I have a fairly substantial brown algae bloom. The cleanup crew, however, is doing as advertized and they probably cleaned up 40% of it in 3 days!

 

[ou_snr_fn]

thanks for all the replies. Ihave been feeding the crew algea chips because my tank is so young. I just wondered if anyone besides me was havin a problem with the emerald crab. I came home this morning which is the second night my clean up crew has been together in my tank and most of them are accounted for.

But thanks again for all the replies and hopefully my cleaner crew can "just get along" h*

 

[sw-newbe]

I think my emrald got into a fight with my cbs. The cbs is missing his left claw(whole arm is gone). It was there 2 days ago when the cbs ate my cleaner shrimp. Now he only has one arm (claw) left. Turn about's fair play, i guess.

 

[bigarn]

It'll be back after a few molts.

 

[sw-newbe]

Yeah, that's what I figured. I guess if you want to rough house, you have to pay the piprer!

 

[sinner's girl]

My emerald hasn't bothered any hemits or the CBS. I got him on aug. 2. Try feeding your crew. I give my shrimp and seaweed. The emerald loved the shrimp. Keep them full and they won't attack each other.

 

[sw-newbe]

I'll give that a try. I haven't fed them yet because I had a tank full of brown, furry algae. They've cleaned up 50-60% in the 5 days they've been in the tank. I figured with all the algae they were eating they wouldn't be hungry, but it won't hurt to throw in a shrimp!