Emerald Crabs vs SPS

[Roatan Reef]

I've never had problems with Emerald Crabs ever...only a few got gigantic and had to remove from my 40B.

Funny thing is now....they don't live very long in my tank, now that it is more mature and established. I only find dead skeletons. Haven't bought any in 6 months. My snails, peppermint shrimps, Urchin do a good enough job now. Don't need anymore. But they were good at 1st.

4 peppermint shrimp, about 14 Turbo, Zebra, Nassarius Snails, 1 pin cushion Urchin ...doing the business!

 

[jkcoral]

Where’s the best place to order?

I ordered mine from John at Reef Cleaners. He is the only place I know of that actually has them. It was my first time as a customer there, and it was fantastic and will be a customer for all cleanup crew and inverts in the future.

 

[ScottB]

I’ve bought some twice and they went after the bases for sure. I think maybe they’re just too dumb to know the difference or maybe they really like the sweet taste of Acropora tissue. Lol

MIGHT be that they are not eating acro in a predatory fashion, but rather in a scavenging fashion as the common vulture does. There are hundreds if not thousands of creatures in our tanks that scavenge. Just a thought.

 

[MoshJosh]

I love the way emerald crabs clean rocks. Their pincher’s are perfectly made to pick a rock clean. However, they always seem to eat the base of my Acro’s. I’m just wondering if anybody else has this problem are do they just appear to eat corals, but stop after they taste a few. For sure I’ve had several eat almost 1/2 of the base of an Acro that I’d rather keep.


I guess what I’m trying to ask is how long does it take for them to stop messing with corals. Do they eventually stop or will they just keep eating SPS. How many people here still keep them without problems? Maybe they need supplemental feeding’s?

I have had a few that seem less interested in coral. . . other love the taste. . . most recently one decided it liked my acros. . . he lives in the sump now.