Can I add a 2nd Emerald Crab to My Tank?

[FragMan07]

I have one emerald crab I got last week to take care of some bubble algae and all this guy is doing is hiding under rocks. The Algae is still expanding.

I'm thinking of picking up another emerald crab to either double the efforts or just make crab #1 extremely jealous and get his butt moving, lol.


Either way, are there any negative effects to adding a 2nd emerald crab to a 29 gallon tank?

[Blown 346]

Emerald crabs are a 50/50 chance of them actually taking care of the bubble algae. I wouldnt of added any crabs to help. They are optunistic feeders and will eat what they can catch whether it be fish, snails etc.

Instead of buying animals etc to take care of algae you have to find out where it is coming and rid of it yourslef or your just putting a band aid on the problem.

Look at what your feeding how much and how often, water changes, how often? Water parameters,Phosphate levels will all contribute and take a roll in algae growth.

[FragMan07]

My levels are fine, I had a half dollar sized piece of bubble algae hiding under a star polyp that I pried out a few weeks ago with a chisel.

Now the remnants are all over and I need a crab to do a cleanup job before it starts spreading all over again.

So again, can I add a 2nd emerald crab to my tank successfully?

[Blown 346]

A 2nd crab might not touch it. I would just remove it by hand, if you cant take the rock out and scrub it off and rinse it in saltwater. Otherwise you can have problems with these crabs.

[FragMan07]

Yeh i cant take out the rock, I have a GIANT piece of star polyp wrapped around it and surorunding rocks kinda glueing them together.

How do you remove bubbles on snail shells, pieces of coral, and underneath crevices? These are my main difficulty areas. I dont wanna kill the tank but I'm pretty sure the bubble algae got all over when i pried out that giant piece

[Blown 346]

When I had this problem, I just went out a bought a small bristle scrub brush. I scrubbed the rock down in and out, for the inside of the rock use the long brushes you can get at any petstore to clean out lines etc. Just rinse in fresh saltwater swish the rock around to get the spores off of it after scrubbing.

[FragMan07]

How do I rinse the rock in freshwater if I cant remove it from the tank?

I like the idea of using the scrub brush and scrubbing it down in the tank, but the bubbles will go everywhere I fear.

I cant take the rock out of the tank because of the giant star polyp

[jcpatella]

I had a few bubbles in my tank. My wife would pop them off using a dental tool (an ice-pic sort of thing) while I hovered above her tool with a siphon hose.....kinky....

Anyway, I got an emerald crab because my wife liked it, but he's very annoying. He tramples over everything and picks at random things - Algae, yes, but also at shrimp, passing fish, the occasional coral, etc...

[Blown 346]

I thought you said you can remove it. If you cant remove, you will have to manually get what you can out. The star polyps will be fine out of water for a couple of minutes, as long as they stay wet and dont dry out they wont be affected by being out of water. The easiest way would be to remove the rock if you can.

[FragMan07]

"""Yeh i cant take out the rock, I have a GIANT piece of star polyp wrapped around it and surorunding rocks kinda glueing them together."""



I appreciate all the efforts here, I'm racking my brains now.

[NirvanaFan]

A second emerald crab won't do any more harm than the first one would. I don't believe they fight or anything (mine don't at least).

[Blown 346]

They might not fight, but once they get larger they will go after, catch, eat what they can. I used to have them and once they got passed a certain size they started to feed off of my snails, smaller fish as they rested at night, since crabs feed when the ligths are out most of the time.

[FragMan07]

I imagine if they get too large I'll just take them out and return them to a store for some credit.

Shouldn't be any harder to catch than my old damsel was.

[Aadler]

i have 3 in a 40g, they all have their area and dont wander much.

[Blown 346]

Originally posted by FragMan07
I imagine if they get too large I'll just take them out and return them to a store for some credit.

Shouldn't be any harder to catch than my old damsel was.

You would be surprised. Expect to take all the rock out and search it for them buried inside it.