problem with emerald crabs...please help

[superman]

For some reason I am unable to keep emerald crabs alive for more than a few months. I keep shrimp that do fine, fish that do fine, corals and anenome that do fine and even hermits. But for some reason after a couple of months the emerald crabs seem to get lighter in color til they are a light green almost white, then they die. Can anyone help me with this please. I don't know why they dont survive. I've had like 6 all together, and i just lost one yesterday.

 

[julius]

emeralds are algae eaters do you have enough algae for them to eat mines ate my halimeda pland destroyed it do you have any live rock in your tank mines scavenge on my live rock

 

[smellsfishy]

they will eat any and all green stuff... Mine ate every last stich of green hair algea, and a few of the bubble algea sprouting here n there. Now he's consumed all the nice kelp that was just getting going on a piece of LR..leaving just stubs. And he's only been employed for a couple weeks... I think he needs to slow down a bit... gonna eat himself out of a job.

 

[ivanfj]

My emerald just hide under the rocks from the very first day and he never came back out and one day I found him dead under one of the rocks. He has done nothing to my bubble algae nor to the hair algae that I had before. I always have trouble trying to keep crabs, no matter what kind of crabs. Hermits, emerald, they just all died.

 

[dreeves]

Crabs and shrimp are about the only things I havent been able to kill yet...
If it swims...dreeves can kill it! If it crawls...it is safe

 

[arniej]

Ive had my emerald crab for a while and after he cleaned up all the LR he looked hungry all the time so I started adding algae sheets to the tank couple times a week. He loves them and tears out a big chunk everytime I put it in.

 

[julius]

mine also like to nip and tuck at my featherdusters and polyps he havent done it in a while but he tries to test me sometimes

 

[broncofish]

Originally posted by smellsfishy
they will eat any and all green stuff...
including my metalic green mushrooms off to the fuge he went i try to acclimate all my inverts for 2 hours, this seems to work for me

 

[smellsfishy]

yeah, I heard they may tear up polyps n such.... I just put a rock w/some purple n blue mushroom coral (Actinodiscus Mutablis?). I'll be keeping a close eye on him. The eviction will be swift if he starts in on the shrooms.
I'm also thinking of adding algea sheet-feeder-things once he's cleaned off the rocks.... or sooner
Broncofish: whered you find the Calvin and Hobbes avatar??

 

[michaeltx]

I am just like Redcorsair any crabs I add triple there size in a few months and the shrimp I have tried to add (i quit trying) dye within a few minutes even with extense acclimation and water testing to make sure that they are the same.
crabs I can literally pick them up and drop them in the tank from any source and they thrive. go figure.
Mike

 

[broncofish]

Originally posted by smellsfishy
Broncofish: whered you find the Calvin and Hobbes avatar??
A friend sent it to me a while back, I'll ask her

 

[smellsfishy]

thanks bronco. Calvin n Hobbes is one of my favorites...as is..er was.. "Bloom County" I think it was called.