Emerald Crab attacks! - Page 2

Kinetic · 02/12/2007, 06:48 PM

Well my emerald was so big, it ran out of food. I would have to feed it two algae disks a day, or else it would start tearing tissues off my SPS. Eventually I saw it snap and grab one of my gobies and then pulled it back behind the rocks. I couldn't do anything about it, then my other goby dissapeared... then all my AOG frags and more zoos, all my gsp... finally he ate everything he dared and just died.

I'll never get another emerald again.

Misled · 02/12/2007, 06:49 PM

Mine never ate any of his tank mates. One night he decided my green polyped finger leather made a nice umbrella. Crawled up the stalk and latched both pinchers in to hold him in place. Needless to say, the leather was not pleased. I removed him and put him in another place in the tank. Within an hour he was back, latched on. Threw some food in hopinghe would leave for that. He just held on with with one arm and grabbed food as it passed by with the other. Had to go!

Philwd · 02/12/2007, 07:07 PM

I had an emerald get big. 1" claws. Got plenty of food. Would eat mysis as well as any algae. But then it would hover above the randall's goby and tiger pistol burrows waiting for them to come out. Then it started atacking my labouti at night. Fish had in the course of a week 2 chunks taken out of his sides and a very badly torn pec fin. When the lights went out the fish would hide up in the corner of the tank. My wife finally caught the sucker and in the sump he went. No more attacks.

tls · 02/13/2007, 08:17 AM

Good news! the tang is still alive and another night has passed without any attacks! I asked the owner at the LFS about the attack and he said to cut their claws off and they wont attack. I know they will grow back, but i dont want a bunch of amputee crabs running around.

rustybucket145 · 02/13/2007, 08:24 AM

umm.... how would he eat without any claws?

tls · 02/13/2007, 08:30 AM

he can feed himself with his feet. like those people on maury povich.

Jeanniee · 02/13/2007, 09:26 AM

I agree with Rich Connely, I have hermits and emeralds and have never had a problem but I am huge believer in regular feedings. Every week I leave a siverside on the bottom for the crabs and they are very happy and nonconfrontational.

jmiller1592 · 02/13/2007, 09:41 AM

I agree with TLS. My wife has no hands and she is able to feed herself well with her feet. It took some practice after the accident, but I'm sure the crabs will also adapt.

Grey Reefer · 02/13/2007, 09:50 AM

Check this out wetweb
Some people have trouble and others don't with emerald crabs. My personal experince with them was they did not eat much algae but mostly ate scraps of food that the fish missed. Not very useful critters IMHO, but some people swear by them.

benray4fun · 02/13/2007, 11:15 AM

Well, when I first got my emarald he was small, cute and harmless in appearance. He was supposed to eat the green hair algae that was growing out of control in the tank..."he did this like a machine on steroids." He became an opportunist hunter after the algae was gone,
eating anything he could catch or presented itself..."not picky at all."

I still like the guy, he did what he was supposed to and I would never chuck'm or cut his claws, it's just out of the question for me.
He's very interesting and is still usefull at getting rid of nuisance algaes, excessive coraline, or week dying tank mates..."I'll take the good with the bad." I just won't get another one if he proves excessively costly...

RichConley · 02/13/2007, 02:20 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Philwd
I had an emerald get big. 1" claws. Got plenty of food. Would eat mysis as well as any algae. But then it would hover above the randall's goby and tiger pistol burrows waiting for them to come out. Then it started atacking my labouti at night. Fish had in the course of a week 2 chunks taken out of his sides and a very badly torn pec fin. When the lights went out the fish would hide up in the corner of the tank. My wife finally caught the sucker and in the sump he went. No more attacks.

Are you absolutely sure yours was an Emerald? Theres a couple hundred species of mithrax crabs, and an Emerald's claws aren't made to cut. I can't see how they'd take chunks out of the side of a fish. They simply do not have the anatomy to do it. They have blunt claws.

benray4fun · 02/13/2007, 03:19 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by RichConley
Are you absolutely sure yours was an Emerald? Theres a couple hundred species of mithrax crabs, and an Emerald's claws aren't made to cut. I can't see how they'd take chunks out of the side of a fish. They simply do not have the anatomy to do it. They have blunt claws.

Rich, my mithrax takes chunks of coraline out of my live rock. Surely, flesh has got to be easier to take apart, they can be brutal.

techreef · 02/14/2007, 11:46 AM

I have a Ruby Crab in my tank (red colored "emerald" or mithrax crab) I've watched him clipping off polyps from a star coral and an unknown SPS hitchhiking coral on my TBS live rock. I'm also missing one of my two hitchhiking tiger gobies, but that could be due to a 3.5" gorilla crab which I finally caught and removed.

I don't think that it's out of the question that there could either 1) be two separate species of nearly identical mithrax crabs that have wildly differing personalities re: aggression, or 2) just like fish of the same species, each crab has its own personality, and you gets what you gets. There are too many anecdotes of hobbyists watching their emerald crabs preying on fish or corals to simply dismiss it as impossible. On the flip side, there are lots of peaceful emeralds too. It's a big ocean, people. Lots o' possible variety.

thepro · 02/14/2007, 01:07 PM

My emarlad killed a large cleaner shrimp, a sixline wrasse and a clarkii. they are EVIL. get him out.

I put a piece of shrip in a drinking glass, placed it on a 45 degree angle on the bottom of my tank resting against a rock. he crawled in there at night and the glass was too slippery for him to get out. I'm never putting in another crap like that in my tank.

02/12/2007, 06:49 PM	#27
Misled RC Mod Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Pittsburgh, Pa Posts: 11,440 Blog Entries: 11	Mine never ate any of his tank mates. One night he decided my green polyped finger leather made a nice umbrella. Crawled up the stalk and latched both pinchers in to hold him in place. Needless to say, the leather was not pleased. I removed him and put him in another place in the tank. Within an hour he was back, latched on. Threw some food in hopinghe would leave for that. He just held on with with one arm and grabbed food as it passed by with the other. Had to go! __________________ Jesse I'm not saying I'm Batman. I'm just saying nobody has ever seen me and Batman in a room together.

02/13/2007, 08:24 AM	#30
rustybucket145 Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: valdosta, ga Posts: 3,707	umm.... how would he eat without any claws? __________________ 400gals of various tanks in the same system. Current Tank Info: 2 175w MH, 2 VH0 Actinics, Lots of Live Rock, tons of copepods, a Fat Mandarin Goby, Niger Trigger, Yellow Tang, Falco Hawkfish, Bi-Color Pseudo, numerous soft, SPS and LPS Corals

02/13/2007, 09:41 AM	#33
jmiller1592 Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Orlando Posts: 2	I agree with TLS. My wife has no hands and she is able to feed herself well with her feet. It took some practice after the accident, but I'm sure the crabs will also adapt. __________________ Jamie Miller

02/14/2007, 01:07 PM	#39
thepro Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Chicago (University Village) Posts: 277	My emarlad killed a large cleaner shrimp, a sixline wrasse and a clarkii. they are EVIL. get him out. I put a piece of shrip in a drinking glass, placed it on a 45 degree angle on the bottom of my tank resting against a rock. he crawled in there at night and the glass was too slippery for him to get out. I'm never putting in another crap like that in my tank. __________________ Tank: 37 gal Lighting: 250W Aqua Medic MH 10k Livestock: Blue leghermit crabs, snails, astrea snales, 2 zebra turbo snales, 1 cleaner shrimp, 2 true perc clows, 1 six line wrasse, 1 Firefish, tuxido urchant, Corals: Zoas, Xenia, Frogspawn, purple shrooms, Blastomussa, RBTA, orange monti cap, Kenya tree

02/12/2007, 06:48 PM	#26
Kinetic Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: SF Bay Area Posts: 7,230	Well my emerald was so big, it ran out of food. I would have to feed it two algae disks a day, or else it would start tearing tissues off my SPS. Eventually I saw it snap and grab one of my gobies and then pulled it back behind the rocks. I couldn't do anything about it, then my other goby dissapeared... then all my AOG frags and more zoos, all my gsp... finally he ate everything he dared and just died. I'll never get another emerald again.

02/12/2007, 07:07 PM	#28
Philwd Premium Member Join Date: May 2004 Location: Gilbert, Az Posts: 4,057	I had an emerald get big. 1" claws. Got plenty of food. Would eat mysis as well as any algae. But then it would hover above the randall's goby and tiger pistol burrows waiting for them to come out. Then it started atacking my labouti at night. Fish had in the course of a week 2 chunks taken out of his sides and a very badly torn pec fin. When the lights went out the fish would hide up in the corner of the tank. My wife finally caught the sucker and in the sump he went. No more attacks.

02/13/2007, 08:17 AM	#29
tls Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: orlando Posts: 57	Good news! the tang is still alive and another night has passed without any attacks! I asked the owner at the LFS about the attack and he said to cut their claws off and they wont attack. I know they will grow back, but i dont want a bunch of amputee crabs running around.

02/13/2007, 08:30 AM	#31
tls Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: orlando Posts: 57	he can feed himself with his feet. like those people on maury povich.

02/13/2007, 09:26 AM	#32
Jeanniee Registered Member Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Maryland Posts: 96	I agree with Rich Connely, I have hermits and emeralds and have never had a problem but I am huge believer in regular feedings. Every week I leave a siverside on the bottom for the crabs and they are very happy and nonconfrontational.

02/13/2007, 09:50 AM	#34
Grey Reefer Registered Member Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Sarasota, FL Posts: 197	Check this out wetweb Some people have trouble and others don't with emerald crabs. My personal experince with them was they did not eat much algae but mostly ate scraps of food that the fish missed. Not very useful critters IMHO, but some people swear by them.

02/13/2007, 11:15 AM	#35
benray4fun Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Hartford, CONNECTICUT Posts: 1,147	Well, when I first got my emarald he was small, cute and harmless in appearance. He was supposed to eat the green hair algae that was growing out of control in the tank..."he did this like a machine on steroids." He became an opportunist hunter after the algae was gone, eating anything he could catch or presented itself..."not picky at all." I still like the guy, he did what he was supposed to and I would never chuck'm or cut his claws, it's just out of the question for me. He's very interesting and is still usefull at getting rid of nuisance algaes, excessive coraline, or week dying tank mates..."I'll take the good with the bad." I just won't get another one if he proves excessively costly...

02/14/2007, 11:46 AM	#38
techreef Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Montclair, NJ Posts: 1,046	I have a Ruby Crab in my tank (red colored "emerald" or mithrax crab) I've watched him clipping off polyps from a star coral and an unknown SPS hitchhiking coral on my TBS live rock. I'm also missing one of my two hitchhiking tiger gobies, but that could be due to a 3.5" gorilla crab which I finally caught and removed. I don't think that it's out of the question that there could either 1) be two separate species of nearly identical mithrax crabs that have wildly differing personalities re: aggression, or 2) just like fish of the same species, each crab has its own personality, and you gets what you gets. There are too many anecdotes of hobbyists watching their emerald crabs preying on fish or corals to simply dismiss it as impossible. On the flip side, there are lots of peaceful emeralds too. It's a big ocean, people. Lots o' possible variety.