Emerald Crabs

[sprinter144]

Just put an Emerald Crab into my 46 gallon bowfront. I've got some bubble alae I hope it will eat. I put the crab into the tank on Saturday and haven't seen it for the last 24 hours. I sure hope it's just found a good place in the rocks and will eventually come out and eat some algae. Anyone have much experience with these crabs.

 

[tito3054]

i have around 6 and they usually come out when my light are about to turn off and after.They just camouflage real good on the rocks.

 

[nuro]

i've got two and didnt see them for 3 days when i put them in the tank, now they are pretty regular sights.

 

[sprinter144]

Well nearly two weeks went by and Thursday night I saw something moving in the tank once the lights had bee off for awhile. It was my crab! He's alive.

 

[sprinter144]

I got to see the little guy 1 night and just like that haven't seen him in a week again. I guess that keeps me looking and wondering each night what if I'll see him or not.

 

[markeo99]

I've got crabs all over and I very rarely see them sometimes at night

 

[gmann1139]

I bought one for the same reason, and he failed me miserably. I've studied people's results on here, and my guess is that the majority of emeralds won't eat Bubble Algae.
Mine's also a hider. I have a three day rule. If I don't see him for three days, I go hunting, as we's crawled up cords and such before and almost gotten himself killed.

 

[jimmy40741]

I moved from a smaller to a larger tank a couple of months ago with alot more LR and hiding places, and moved 2 emerald crabs. About 2 or 3 weeks later I saw a emerald shell on the back side behind my rocks where I couldn't get to it, so I couldn't tell if it was a dead crab or a molt. I'd not seen either of the crabs so I just assumed that I'd lost both of them. Well about a week ago I'd shortened my lighting schedule and thought I'd take a peek with a flashlight before I went to bed and to my surprise I saw the smaller emerald crab perched on top of a LR munching down on some algae. The next night I did the same thing and saw the larger and the smaller both out grazing. It surprised the h*ll out of me because I had not seen either of them in about 6 weeks.

 

[sprinter144]

Every time I think the little guy has bit the dust he shows up. Tonigh is the first time I've seen him in weeks!! Obvisouly he's not eating the bubble algae although it doesn't seem to be getting any worse.

 

[novahobbies]

I'm over the emerald crabs. They're fine when they are small, but they turn into fin-nipping devils when they get bigger! I had two in my 55 setup, and one got frelling huge! They also like to push my LPS corals around to get at some juicy bits of hair algae they may have missed, and I'll wake up in the morning to see my torch or frogspawn down on the sand. Course, this will be fixed when the move to the 110 is complete...superglue the corals to the rocks. The last straw for the big crab was when I saw him calmly crawl up to my mandarin dragonet and begin nipping his tail for no reason at all!

His days are numbered now.
I'm thinking for hair algae, turbo snails may be better. They may bulldoze rocks and corals if left unsectured, but my dragonet has nothing to fear from them at least!

 

[dragonzim]

I've had a few in my 75 and while they were good members of my CUC none of them ever touched any bubble algae.