emerald crab or not?

[salty joe]

I've heard good mostly things about emerald crabs but trying to get a better feel of the risk they pose to tankmates. My smallest fish will be rainford gobies, mandarins and firefish.

I'll be getting my CUC soon, anybody willing to share their experience with emeralds would be appreciated.

 

[Ron Reefman]

I have wild collected (by me in the Florida Keys) emerald crabs. They have not been an issue at all. But it is a smaller tank (50g cube) and there isn't enough algae for them to eat. So I put some nori in a weighted clip and set it on the bottom of the tank in the sand just off the rocks. They usually come out and eat it.

 

[salty joe]

Thank you , Ron Reefman. The one I'm looking at also comes from the keys.

 

[Instigate]

2 out of 4 of my emeralds so far where caught eating coral. One was a large male, the other was a smaller female. In the future I think I'll stick to snails.

 

[UM Aquarium Club]

Never had an issue with emeralds eating anything they weren't supposed to. We've never added any to a tank unless we have bubble algae issues though because they take care of that like nothing else.

 

[vetteguy53081]

They do fairly well with bubble algae but it seems after they get rid of it or get bored, they annoy coral and even pull apart zoas

 

[salty joe]

Maybe I'd better re think the emerald crab. I don't have bubble algae, just a ton of crappy looking fuzzy greenish brown stuff and a couple calcerous algae that I'm OK with. A few trochus are putting a small dent in the mess but they need help.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Maybe I'd better re think the emerald crab. I don't have bubble algae, just a ton of crappy looking fuzzy greenish brown stuff and a couple calcerous algae that I'm OK with. A few trochus are putting a small dent in the mess but they need help.

Trochous good but add also some nassarus, Mexican turbo and cerith snail who clean up what algaes you just mentioned. two of each should suffice. remember with snails to acclimate SLOWLY.

 

[salty joe]

Yes, and sometimes slow isn't slow enough. I bought 4 snails from Petco two or three weeks ago and didn't realize the water was way under full strength until I got home. The best I could do was a four hour transition and the nerites are still alive-sorta. They are anchored to rock but hardly move.