I recently added an emerald crab to my tank. I noticed this morning that my brittle star was missing part of one leg and some of his disk. Has anyone else ever had an issue with an emerald like this? Also do you think the star will be ok? He lost a couple legs a few years ago in a powerhead incident. But they grew back. I’m more worried about part of his disk being gone. If he will be able to feed or not. Thank you.
Crab eating brittle star??
- Thread starter ncshpfox
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Retro Reefer
Slow and steady wins the race!
I doubt your emerald crab attacked your star, they are opportunist and would potentially try eating a damaged or dying one
That was my thought also. But I’ve had the brittle star for over 6 years and the only new edition to my tank is the crab. The star likes to stay in the rocks and stick his arms out. They are also pretty slow movers so it wouldn’t take much for the crab to grab him. Hopefully he can regenerate his disk like they do arms. Thanks for the reply. I was able to get a picture of the damage.
Retro Reefer
Slow and steady wins the race!
Nice looking star, hopefully it will recover.. looks like your tank is pretty clean, I like to rubber band little strips of nori to a small rock and drop in tank for my crabs to eat... Also a belated welcome to the forum, I see your a member for 3 years with only two post, you need to get busy.. lol 
Nice looking star, hopefully it will recover.. looks like your tank is pretty clean, I like to rubber band little strips of nori to a small rock and drop in tank for my crabs to eat... Also a belated welcome to the forum, I see your a member for 3 years with only two post, you need to get busy.. lol
Thanks. What’s the old saying. Long time listener. First time caller. Haha. Its a fairly new setup, 65gal. Moved what was in my 14gal cube over. Had to add lots of new dry rock. That’s what it still appears clean. Definitely need to get back to posting more. Thanks again
Holy handgrenade
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I know this is an old from but i got a red matrix crab (a close relative of the emerald crab) and brittle star shipped to me. When i placed both in the tank, i saw the crab eating the poor star. He eat 2 of his legs off. Not sure if the same will happen with an emerald crab but it did happen with this guy
Sink_or_Swim
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I know this post is from last summer, but I've been trying to figure out if a crab I recently added took a leg off my serpent starfish and also a swipe at the side of my tomini tang! It's a "ruby red mithrax" crab (basically red morph of the emerald crab). Literally the next day after putting it in the tank, I found the star missing half a leg and a scratch on the side of the tang. Then I spotted the crab - when he noticed me, he waved his freaking claws around toward me! Aggressive little bugger! He's gotta go now unfortunately. At least the tang has healed up, but I haven't seen the starfish since.
Seems like the red crabs are a no-go.
Holy handgrenade
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For real man, he was vicious! Was the first experience i had with a mithrax and im kinda scared to get the emerald variant now.I know this post is from last summer, but I've been trying to figure out if a crab I recently added took a leg off my serpent starfish and also a swipe at the side of my tomini tang! It's a "ruby red mithrax" crab (basically red morph of the emerald crab). Literally the next day after putting it in the tank, I found the star missing half a leg and a scratch on the side of the tang. Then I spotted the crab - when he noticed me, he waved his freaking claws around toward me! Aggressive little bugger! He's gotta go now unfortunately. At least the tang has healed up, but I haven't seen the starfish since.
I live in florida and there is a beach a few miles away that has oyster shells and what not so im sure i can get a few. I have bubble algae so might have to break down and try to catch a few females. I learned the hard way not to trust a crab, even though i have blue legs. I just trade them when they get big for smaller ones at the lfs.
Im sorry to hear about your tang and star, thats shocking how aggressive yours was!
Sink_or_Swim
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Yeah I'm thinking the aggression could maybe have something to do with the fact that this crab is much larger than my previous emerald crabs. I had 2 little ones - they were completely peaceful! Cute little buggers too. I'm trying to finally get my new tank set up by this weekend and get everything moved over - hoping to catch the crab then and see if my LFS will take him (and warn them he's a jerk, lol). I really hope I find the starfish alive somewhere too... haven't seen it in over a week.
Luckly the tang's side has healed up just fine. It's possible that he scraped it on the rocks and the crab is innocent... but I definitely think the crab chomped the starfish.No more crabs for me, lol, except maybe a pom pom crab or something equally small and harmless.
I really like watching the red crab stuff it's face, it's pretty entertaining. But not worth the trouble.Hopefully if you can find female emeralds they'll take care of your bubble algae and play nice!
(I have 4 or 5 murderous little scarlet leg hermits - they're getting evicted too. I'm tired of them killing my cerith snails).
