Emerald Crab and Zoas

[Alysiak00]

Hello all, i have an emerald crab and has not given me any problems....until now, i think. I have a few zoas in the tank but he like one especially. There is a frag crammed into a crevice and he lives underneath it. I believe he is either eating them or playing with them because those particular zoas are usually closed during the day and they might be disappearing. also, i fragged a couple zoas for the first time a few weeks ago and i think he might be the culprit for who ate them. any ideas. thanks in advance

[Ston3]

You could try using a crab trap and throwing him in the sump. Then you can see if he's really the culprit or not.

[Alysiak00]

theres no problem catching the little bugger, its just i didn't know if anyone else had problems with them and zoas?

[T-Rex]

The emerald is probably just irritating them. Still, it’s a good idea to catch and sump him if possible. Also be on the lookout for zoa eating nudis. They are small and hard to see. They actually turn the color of the zoa they're eating.

[Ston3]

Oh my emeralds have been model citizens, but I have heard some experiences of emeralds eating corals. Commonly, I'll see them all over my corals and seemingly picking at my corals, but i think they're just cleaning the corals.

You might want to try dipping the zoas for pests too.

[Alysiak00]

yes, i've looked for the dreaded nudi's and have come up empty handed. the zoa frag was blooming a week ago and then all of a sudden the emerald took a "liking" to that one. i'm pretty convinced it has to do with the emerald irritating it but how do i get him off. i like his presence in the tank but not if he's bothering my corals lol

[Ston3]

Other than removing him, the only things I can think of is either putting the zoa on a frag rack until it strengthens up or putting it in a protective cage of some sort. Once it multiplies and flourishes, maybe the crab won't be as detrimental to it.

[Alysiak00]

Well, officially just scared the crap out myself. I went back to look at the zoas and he's making them worse i think. i decided to take them out and dip them and put them on the frag rack so maybe he will leave them the heck alone. While i was dipping the coral i noticed flat white things and immediately thought flatworms. To my surprise, with a little help from melevsreef.com/id i got a positive id that they were sand skaters. supposedly reef safe but i wonder if these are doing the damage and the emerald is just cleaning up the dead tissue?

[noahm]

I have had two emeralds out of about 20 total, go rogue and start eating zoas. Once they snap, they never go back, but are either fine or not, no in-between.

[Alysiak00]

thank you for your experience with them. i am still yet to catch him in the act of actually eating them. it still looks like he's just cleaning around them. i need a culprit already its driving me nuts.

[tosteetos]

Well this sounds awfully familiar, the other day my Emerald was hanging from a rock trying to reach my Zoas, I didn't really see him doing anything to them, he just looked like he was curious and was extending his pincers (is that how they are called?) to see what the hell was that green glowing thing.

Today I was surprised to see him like almost right on top of my zoas while I was doing some cleaning/water change. I did not see him eating them though but they were closed up. I'm going to keep an eye on him to see what he's up to.

Just thought I would share it as well.

[mallorieGgator]

I've taken out 4 emerald crab hitchhikers in from my tank for picking at and eating my zoas. I actually watched one come up to my zoa, grab the skirt and pull! I would take it out. Mine are alot happier once I took my crabs out. Plus you can trade it into the LFS for some snails or something.

[fjr_wertheimber]

Yeah, I had an emerald crab that went rogue, starting eating my zoas, then the little bastard really went nuts and starting tearing the claws off my harlequin shrimp!! I'll never put another one of the bastards in my reef...

[Alysiak00]

aha! thank you and good to know. I tried finding him this morning and he's outa sight. looks like he's running scared lol

[89Foxbody]

I had what I thought was this problem with one of my big hermit crabs. I saw him on some of my zoos and his pincers were going up and down and I thought to myself "You little son of a..." and proceeded to grab my algae scraper to knock him off of them, but when I looked closer I saw that he was just reaching in between the polyps.

I find it annoying because I can always tell when my hermit crabs have been climbing around because all my zoos are closed.

[Alysiak00]

im just wondering if they're being agitated or indeed being eaten. who knows