Crab gone W-I-L-D!

[superwade2]

I've had 2 Emerald Crabs now for about 2 months or so... I see them hiding out in the rocks picking every now and again, but days go by and I don't see them at all...
THEN, tonight, as I'm rocking one of my twin girls to sleep, I look down and see this... and had to grab the camera (and needless to say, sleepy time was delayed a couple minutes...
Little Booger came right up to the front glass, stood up and walked basically the length of my tank, then started munching on my newly added (last week) Yellow Colony Polyp... I don't know what the deal is...
Tank is a little warmer tonight - just over 80F, but otherwise nothing else too wierd going on
SuperW2

 

[jeremy888]

well that sucks. ive never heard of them being any kind of threat to polyps.
weird.... :thinking:

 

[sufunk]

Our emerald crab made a meal of our yellow polyps. He got a trip to the lfs as a prize. would not get another!

 

[oceana]

Originally Posted by sufunk
Our emerald crab made a meal of our yellow polyps. He got a trip to the lfs as a prize. would not get another!

i'm with you. i wont put any crab in my tank on purpose. to rinsky IMO

 

[francisco5]

Last time someone posted a thread about emeralds, I replied writing how much I enjoyed my 3 and how they haven't bothered anything in my tank. Well within the next few days I noticed I had one less zoa on one of my rocks. Later I caught one of my emeralds on top of the zoa colony munching away on one of the polyps. I caught the little guy in the act. Needless to say the crab,only the one i caught eating the zoa, got exiled to my QT tank. i haven't noticed either of the other 2 emeralds in my display bothering anything.

 

[saltn00b]

hmm that emerald crab is not even green, weird?
i have heard that when the Ems get larger they may become a threat to some coral. i have about 4 in my tank, that only has a few polyps that came in on a combo / Zoo rock. i have never seen them eat anything, although once one of them was on the zoo's, grazing. i watched very carefully and he was pulling stuff off the rock imbetween the zoos, not actually harming them.

 

[francisco5]

My biggest emerald grazes on the zoa rock, but the one I Caught was pinching on a half-devoured zoa polyp. Like I posted earlier "caught in the act". I am not trying to blame the crab. When the first zoa came up missing I didn't even think maybe one of the emeralds got it. I really did see the crab ,I exiled, munching on a zoa.

 

[mrdc]

I have two which hasn't bothered anything yet. The big one can pick up small frags which can be a nuissance since I have to put them back. I wonder if they will start eating on coral if they aren't getting enough food. My tank is well fed which is why I have to do water changes so I wonder if that is what has kept my emeralds happy.
Anyway, I have a red one too but was told it's not an emerald but in the same class. I got it because I wanted some color.
Good luck!