Emerald Crabs

[soccer4life94]

Do Emerald Crabs kill each other? I had three but i have only seen one lately. The biggest one.

 

[grantman]

I started with five and I only see one at any given time. I have a 125 and I always see one in a different spot than before. It can travel that far but I doubt it. I think they are just solitary creatures and their color lends to blending into the rocks. I wouldn't worry. Of course I might only have one though too.

 

[jayrascoe]

I got my first emerald crab today.
The first thing he did, when i introduced him to my tank...
he ripped a tiny hermit crab out of its shell and wolfed it down.
Jerk!
He is fun to watch though. Very quick- if i ever wanted to take him out of the tank, i don't know how I'd do it!

 

[coxy101]

Wow! Your emerald crab killed a hermit? My emerald only interacts with my snails, etc. by cleaning them. He often will ride the back of my conch and clean him. All of my inverts are so sparkly! I've never seen an emerald kill something.

 

[spline9]

I've had an emerald eat a clam (just a random hitchiker clam that came with the live rock). I think the clam was sick, though. Havent had any incident with the emeralds (I have 3), going for anything healthy yet.
...then again, they've only been in the tank for less than 2 weeks.

 

[stando76]

I am pretty sure mine got to my wrasse since I have not seen it for two weeks.

 

[jayrascoe]

Actually, the only reason my em. crab killed that hermit was because it was hungry coming from the lfs. I've had it for months now and he hasn't killed anything that I've noticed.
The only downside is that it likes to benchpress my corals and knock stuff around.

 

[clarkiiclo]

I have several emerald crabs and they have never eaten anything that I didnt want them too.
Most of the time they are very gentle. I have watched an emerald take a feather duster out of the substrate clean all the algae off of him like a piece of corn and not hurt him at all.
The duster was out most of the time during the cleaning.

 

[farslayer]

I have five in a 46G reef and they cause no trouble. "Big Daddy" is almost two inches (legspan) right now and he doesn't bother anyone, he cleans my scarlets and my snails and that's about it.

 

[snipe]

That is cool I hope to get "some" emeralds but I dont want alot cause I wont other crabs to. It is just good to know they may or may not kill something right off the bat "mabey I should put them in first?

 

[farslayer]

I put my emeralds in last, they don't seem to be very territorial, they just walk all over everybody, ignoring them on the way. Now, you do need to avoid the blue hermits as they can be very agressive. I stick with zebras, emeralds and scarlets, although I do want to get something like a strawberry or boxer crab.

 

[cholland]

I started with 3 emeralds and slowly got down to 1. We did not see him for about 2 months. Then one day we got a glimpse of him when we turned the lights on, WOW! His legspan is now about 3" across. We named him Monster.
He doesn't bother anything in the tank. He just eats alot. You can tell where he has been by the scrape marks on the rocks.
He is also very shy, you have to catch him out in the open.
But no problems.

 

[farslayer]

My emeralds are very willing to run around in public, not very shy at all. I did have trouble keeping them before I realized that phosphates were lethal to inverts, but after eliminating them from the tank I've had nothing but success with my inverts (so far, knock on wood). I really enjoy watching the emeralds, they really don't seem to bother a thing.