Random new emerald crab or I'm horrible at math

[hunter32195]

When I started adding fish and invertebrates to my FOWLR tank (40 b) I added 5 emerald crabs as the clean up crew, the 2 smallest didn’t make it but 2 months sadly but the 3 larger ones have been going strong and living happily, Or so I thought only 3…… as I was doing my afternoon feeding (around 4 o’clock when I get home from work) the crabs tend to come out and snack on some brine shrimp but as I was doing my head count on the tank I counted 4 crabs! I’m not complaining I’m just wondering where this little guy came from! The tanks has Been set up for about 7 month with fish in it.

 

[Impala67]

When I started adding fish and invertebrates to my FOWLR tank (40 b) I added 5 emerald crabs as the clean up crew, the 2 smallest didn’t make it but 2 months sadly but the 3 larger ones have been going strong and living happily, Or so I thought only 3…… as I was doing my afternoon feeding (around 4 o’clock when I get home from work) the crabs tend to come out and snack on some brine shrimp but as I was doing my head count on the tank I counted 4 crabs! I’m not complaining I’m just wondering where this little guy came from! The tanks has Been set up for about 7 month with fish in it.

Could it be possible that the “dead crabs” you saw were actually there sheds that they do. The shed looks exactly like the crab but lifeless?

 

[hunter32195]

Could it be possible that the “dead crabs” you saw were actually there sheds that they do. The shed looks exactly like the crab but lifeless?

I know for sure 1 had passed maybe the other might have been a shed but to idk to have not seen it for almost 5 months then it just show up again. Is that normal?

 

[Impala67]

Very I’ve had several disappear on me for 6 months at a time then poof there they are in my opinion emerald crabs are weird like that lol

 

[hunter32195]

Very I’ve had several disappear on me for 6 months at a time then poof there they are in my opinion emerald crabs are weird like that lol

Good to know haha I love the little devils, they have so much personality and the little dance they do when the lights go off is priceless lol

 

[fachatga]

I love when they put up their arms like get away from me when a fish comes too close. I love those guys too. I’ve never had much luck with them unfortunately

 

[hunter32195]

I love when they put up their arms like get away from me when a fish comes too close. I love those guys too. I’ve never had much luck with them unfortunately

Sorry to hear that, I thought I was doing something wrong when I lost the first one (what I thought was the first two) but once I listened to a friend of mine that’s been in the hobby for years and told me that worrying about the tank and trying to fix everything was doing more harm than good and to “just let it go”, my tank and fish seem to be a lot happier! I just feed them once a day and top the tank off every day and everything has been stable.

 

[fachatga]

Sorry to hear that, I thought I was doing something wrong when I lost the first one (what I thought was the first two) but once I listened to a friend of mine that’s been in the hobby for years and told me that worrying about the tank and trying to fix everything was doing more harm than good and to “just let it go”, my tank and fish seem to be a lot happier! I just feed them once a day and top the tank off every day and everything has been stable.

Absolutely. It’s good advise. We all do lose things. It’s never just you. We’ve all made the same mistakes. The way I think about it is to always try to learn from a loss. These are animals and pets and aren’t expendable but we need to be okay with losses we can’t help. Especially when we’re new. It sucks when it happens but at the least we should get better when it happens. I’ve heard from many reefers who have had difficulty with emerald crabs. So I don’t feel too bad about it. But I do wish I know why they died.