emerald eatting my cleaner

[pebbles]

I saw the emerald about a week ago with one of the cleaner shrimps antenna, this morning the shrimp didnt have eyes or claws I thought it was dead but it was moving it's in the part of the tank that I couldnt get to & he's pretty big so I thought I better get him out. I just looked in there & the emerald is eatting him. Now I feed the emerald everyday or so with a piece of nori sheet he comes out & takes it from me no problem, on this site & everywhere else I looked it says Diet: Algae, Flake, Algae Sheets so what's the deal??? I really liked the cleaner!!!!! I'm sooooo Mad.

 

[schneidts]

Gee, sorry to hear about that. All my emeralds have always been well behaved. My emeralds will also hand feed the meaty foods I feed others in the tank, though.

 

[acrylic300]

I just removed my emerald crap for nipping at corals. I have seen him try to grab my Cleaner Shrimp's antanae also. IMO it defeats the purpose of having janitors if you have to feed them.
Sorry for your loss

 

[pebbles]

I have heard that emeralds dont live long in most tanks so I figure if I feed him a little here & there maybe he would live longer plus I figured it woud keep him from bothering others.

 

[mudplayerx]

You sure you guys have emerald crabs? Mine is shy as heck and pretty much runs and hides when anything gets near it.

 

[sweetdawn]

i saw one kill a cleaner shrimp at a lfs. i didnt get one for the longest time till I had an algea problem. he is small and doesnt bother anyone. each animal is different some are nice others are homicidal maniacs

 

[feixjai]

well today i noticed that my cleaner shrimp was molted and saw my emarld eatting the shedded skin. my emarld is about a little smaller than 1 inch

 

[pebbles]

I thought that maybe that was what happened since the molted skin looks real but it's been 4 days & no sign of the cleaner & that night I found the peppermint dead also. I thought maybe they were trying to molt when the emerald killed them. :0(

 

[mdog30001]

i had an emerald and he ate some of my xenia. He also snipped at all my fish when they swam past. I decided to take him back to the lfs, and when i went to get him out he was going for my pygmy angle. I saved the angle and took the crab out. He was extremely aggressive. My lfs said that it was a male, so im guessin that the people with problems have males and the people with peacefull shy crabs have females.

 

[schneidts]

What else do you have in the tank? I just ask because it's possible something else killed the shrimp, and the emerald is just getting the scraps. I could be wrong, though...

 

[mitzel]

my emerald is so mellow. he gave my chocolet chip star a nip one day but only when it tried to climb over his hide out. It does eat frozen krill but it doesn't get agresive over it .

 

[pebbles]

sorry didnt see reply. I have a coral beauty blenny clowns, peppermint shrimp, brown brittle hermits & snails fighting conch that's it, I'm thinking maybe the cleaner tried to molt??? I have no Idea but one of my peppermints got eatten also.

 

[crazyzeus1]

Originally Posted by mdog30001
i had an emerald and he ate some of my xenia. He also snipped at all my fish when they swam past. I decided to take him back to the lfs, and when i went to get him out he was going for my pygmy angle. I saved the angle and took the crab out. He was extremely aggressive. My lfs said that it was a male, so im guessin that the people with problems have males and the people with peacefull shy crabs have females.
We FINALLY caught one of our emeralds...the biggest of our crew & he's DESTROYED our xenias. Luckily, they're growing back like weeds!