Emerald crab question

[ddt]

I was planning to get a couple of Emerald Crabs for my tank to asssist in the control of hair algea. My son and I were looking through some web sites and one mentioned that this crab can become a danger to fish.
My son is very protective of his new friends and has forbidden me from getting any of these crabs until we get more information. Has anyone had problems with Emerald Crabs?
Thanks.

 

[almarktool]

i personally have not had any trouble with my crabs and mandrian and gobies, dwarf fuzzy lion have other fish but figured i would mention the smallest and slowest

 

[danrw84]

ive got 4 in my tank. they dont bother anything, and they clean like heck, and you see them all the time just picking at the rock, people say, WHAT THE HECK IS THAT!! wow its a crab!!!
they do the job!!
ive got small gobies, clowns, they are fine!

 

[rockster]

Never heard of them hurting fish. They are tooo sloooow to catch a HEALTHY fish. I emphasize healthy because you might see them chowing down on a dead fish and blame them for it. They are scavengers. They see dead fishies!!!

 

[attml]

Mine has never hurt any of my fish either, nor have ever seen him make a move for one. He is a great algae eater though.

 

[mbuckley]

Take this account as you will, but... I had just purchased a brand new Royal Gramma for my tank. When I finally released him into the tank he took off and hide among the rock work. I didn't see him for the next couple of hours but I didn't think much off it. That night when I was looking through my tank with a flashlight I found him... He was being eaten by one of my larger emerald crabs. Now it's hard to say exactly what happened between when I released him and when I found him being "Snacked on" but to be safe I moved that emerald crab into my refugium where I don't have any fish... I've since gotten another Gramma and he's doing great.
Mike
P.S. By all accounts the Gramma was healthy and eating at the
LFS when I bought it.

 

[flyinbrian]

I would say that the odds of it being the emeralds fault in death are pretty slim to none. I also have a gramma with an emerald and if anything I would say that the gramma tries to eat the emerald!!
mbuckley: where in canada are you?

 

[javajoe]

Check my signature for my stock list. I have several emerald crabs, and they are fine. I have not seen them eat much algae but they are fun to have in the tank. I would warn you though, make sure you get green ones. I had a red emerald (they are a little less common) and it was fine, but then went on a killing spree- took out a seahorse, couple peppermint shrimp, my sally lightfoot, and was popping my bubble on my bubble coral. My green ones have been fine. they do scavange, so my guess is that the gramma died, and the emerald was cleaning up. i could be wrong though. THey are quite difficult to remove though, so if you do get one that had a violent streak, it would be hard to get out of the tank. we lucked out with the red emerald, he was so absorbed in popping my bubbles, that i was able to quickly snatch him from behind--- we took him to the LFS and fed him to one of the predatory fish
I think you'd be fine with emerald crabs-- start with a small one if you are worried. To ammend my algae comment from earlier-- they did eat the few bubble algae i had, and i have never seen any bubble agae in my tank again, so maybe they are eating that. but as far as hair algae, they dont touch it.

 

[mbuckley]

I live in St.Catharines, Ontario