Mean Emerald Crabs

[jumba]

Anyone one have bad experiences with emerald crabs? I'm pretty sure that it killed both my cleaner shrimp since they were both cut in half

Only had the crab a week
Is this possible?

 

[aftrhrs]

How big is the emerald crab and what size is your tank? What have you been feeding the emerald crab? I had bought one big emerald (size of 50 cent piece) from a LFS and he was very territorial. He would go after anything that came near his turf. My sea urchin ended up eating him......

 

[jumba]

He was the largest one there, body about the size of a 50 cent piece with very large claws. I've seen him snapping at some damsels

 

[jeepboy]

I also have an emerald the size of a 50cent peice. The only time I had problems with him was when I introduced a small bicolor blenny to the tank. The blenny swam near him and the crab caught him. I quickly broke them up. I have 3 shrimp but they are big so they never seem to have problems.
Was your cleaner shrimp a lot smaller than the crab?

 

[jumba]

The cleaner shrimp were good sized body was 3 inches long

 

[razoreqx]

Well I have one emerald crab and he managed to eat five pepperment shrimp.. lol.. so yes they can be aggressive in nature. Not sure what sparked him to eat a portion of my cleaning crew ... but oh well..
Also I have a banded coral shrimp.. Hes another joy He is afraid of nothing. constantly poking at a passing fish or two. One of these days one of those big old tangs are going to take a snap at him... but it will be the last snap.. lol

 

[jsb]

I've got two emeralds about the size of a dime. They seem to have no problems with anyone else in the tank. I caught one on top of one of my turbos picking some algea on him. It was funny.

 

[tree]

I started out with 2 emerald crabs smaller than a dime. Even though I put them on seperate ends of the tank & they stayed there peacefully eating algae on their chosen rocks , at night the larger one would seek out the smaller one to fight it. After about a week, I never saw the smaller crab again.

 

[jodilynn]

Don't know if you all have reef tanks but I want to warn you that they are not always reef safe. I heard that as they get bigger they will eat your coral. I had a case of bubble algea and decided to go ahead and throw in 3 or 4 emeralds in. They did eat most of the bubble algea as well as my corraline so that was good. However, I did catch one of them ripping my zoe's off the rock and eating it. I ended up losing two colonies of zoe's because of the emeralds. They are now in my fuge live life where they can hurt no coral.
Jodilynn

 

[saltymist]

How does one catch an emeral crab in a tank.
I put one into my tank when I had an agresive tank, but now I want a peacefull environment for my clowns.
My emerald hasnt' gone after any of the other tank inhabitants unless they get too close, then he raises his claws in the air, like a prize boxing champion winning a match.
I'd like to catch him sooner than later to avoid any complications with my clowns.
Thanks,

 

[jodilynn]

I had no problems catching my three. Had them all caught in 3 days. I would just go and check the tank at different times of day and night and whenever they were at the front of the tank on the sandbed or on a piece of zoe's at the front of the tank I would scoop them out. I usually had the best luck at night as they were more apt to come out of the live rock. Good luck.
Jodilynn