doomdev Posted August 2, 2011 Share Posted August 2, 2011 Last Sunday I lost my sailfin blenny, but i had noticed a chunk missing from his back a day or two before he died. The only things big enough to take a chunk of that size were my emerald crab and a hi-fin goby i had in there. There are also 3 smaller hermit crabs in there and one red head goby and a red spot goby. Sunday night though i took all the rocks out to catch the crab and i also searched for the hi-fin and the pistol shrimp i had in there and they didn't turn up. What could have attacked them? Link to comment
burtbollinger Posted August 2, 2011 Share Posted August 2, 2011 lots of folks will tell you no, but i have personally witnessed an emerald kill a healthy fire fish and a healthy four line wrasse. they kill by grabbing and not letting go. now prepare for a thread full of parrots squawking that 'emeralds are reef safe.' and your fish must have been sick. don't believe it. my guess is they are 90% reef safe, but if you have one of the 10%, he will kill everything. my advice is never put a crab in a tank. Link to comment
doomdev Posted August 2, 2011 Author Share Posted August 2, 2011 Well he the blenny was perfectly healthy and actually he was a bit of a bully in the tank until he had the chunk taken from his back. I hadn't seen the hi-fin goby for a week at this point and the red head and red spot arent big enough to take a chunk that size out of the blenny so he was the only thing in there big enough to do that to him and unsurprisingly he was the first one feeding on the blenny and he had him around the gills. and i took the crab and threw it in my brother's sump Link to comment
Dazed1 Posted August 2, 2011 Share Posted August 2, 2011 lots of folks will tell you no, but i have personally witnessed an emerald kill a healthy fire fish and a healthy four line wrasse. they kill by grabbing and not letting go. now prepare for a thread full of parrots squawking that 'emeralds are reef safe.' and your fish must have been sick. don't believe it. my guess is they are 90% reef safe, but if you have one of the 10%, he will kill everything. my advice is never put a crab in a tank. +1 Same experience. I've had them with good luck before. But they are a hit/ miss. Link to comment
ColaAddict Posted August 2, 2011 Share Posted August 2, 2011 All crabs are opportunistic feeders. even the most reef safe crab will eat a fish if hungry enough. Emerald crabs are the most reef safe as far as crabs go though. Link to comment
totalimmortal363 Posted August 2, 2011 Share Posted August 2, 2011 Ive seen mine reach for my Tailspot blenny when he swims by so I wouldn't put it past him Link to comment
Dani3d Posted August 2, 2011 Share Posted August 2, 2011 I have a small mandarin and a niger trigger sleeping with my emerald crab in the same cavern...no chunk being eated out of the fish. I don't think they can grab that well with that sort of appendice. Are you sure what you have is not a gorrilla crab? Emeral crabs have little spoon like shape at the end of their claws. I once tried to catch my blue hippo tang by grabbing its tail with a pincher with rubber grip and it was so slippery and even though I was holding tight it just slip away no problem and that was a good grip. I would say maybe you have something else in your liverock eating your livestock or maybe what you have is not an emerald crab. All crabs are opportunistic feeders. even the most reef safe crab will eat a fish if hungry enough. Emerald crabs are the most reef safe as far as crabs go though. Link to comment
JayPagi Posted August 2, 2011 Share Posted August 2, 2011 I was at my LFS a few months back and a new batch of clowns were introduced to a tank with emerald crabs; the fish appeared dazed and some of them pretty weak from travel. I watched that tank for 10 minutes and saw the emeralds attack and eat 3 of the clowns will standing there. Link to comment
doomdev Posted August 2, 2011 Author Share Posted August 2, 2011 The crab has the spoon shape at the end of his claw and i've seen the crab try to grab the blenny and other fish before. Link to comment
burtbollinger Posted August 2, 2011 Share Posted August 2, 2011 threads about emeralds are crazy...very hit and miss. I swear I see threads where NO ONE buys that an emerald will kill a fish. Where are you guys when I need ya ? Link to comment
sean151 Posted August 2, 2011 Share Posted August 2, 2011 threads about emeralds are crazy...very hit and miss. I swear I see threads where NO ONE buys that an emerald will kill a fish. Where are you guys when I need ya ? I agree that I see that a lot and I remember two years ago people used to say just get a small one and once it gets big put it in a FOWLR. Apparently that died and people just changed it too being the safest crab option, which means it can still wreck your tank in a weekend if he isn't happy. Link to comment
wav3form Posted August 2, 2011 Share Posted August 2, 2011 I've had a few emeralds but they've never killed any fish. The problem I have is that when I put one in my tank they disappear never to be seen again. Link to comment
kevlow Posted August 3, 2011 Share Posted August 3, 2011 I had one disappear in the tank. Then mysterious carnage started to appear each morning. When I finally spotted the emerald again he was quite healthy and fearless. Fish, zoas, and small LPS were all on his diet. My 75g reef had become a buffet line. He was named Crab Kong by my kids. I had to disassemble some LR to get him out and return him to the LFS. The Lfs declared that he should be completely reef safe because the pads on the end of his claws meant that he was an algae eater. Another Emerald may not have been a true Emerald. It started off green but as it aged it turned black. It grew larger then the other Emeralds I have had. It became a carnivore, preferring live food, and a vandal. My kids named him Crabzilla. Emeralds are off my reef safe list. kevin Link to comment
Undertheradar Posted August 3, 2011 Share Posted August 3, 2011 All crabs are opportunists for the most part. The only crabs I trust 100% are porcelain or anemone crabs, since they are filter feeders. They are the only crabs I keep, if any. Since getting rid of the hermit crabs, my snail population doesn't need restocking every year due to random "rip outs" by hermits looking for a home. All hermits are dangers in my book as well. They do nothing good that snails cant do and often a whole lot of bad on top. Thats my input. Blood/Fire Shrimp hide all day, peppermints as well. Coral bandeds can grow up into bastards... so skunk cleaners are the only thing with shells in my tanks. They also seem to make it through every time I have to use interceptor to treat for red bugs. I decided to risk it in the first place... figured that they were the only thing I would lose and well worth it to save the corals. Now, whenever I need to bomb for red-bugs, no crabs means I have nothing to worry about. Link to comment
wav3form Posted August 4, 2011 Share Posted August 4, 2011 I had one disappear in the tank. Then mysterious carnage started to appear each morning. When I finally spotted the emerald again he was quite healthy and fearless. Fish, zoas, and small LPS were all on his diet. My 75g reef had become a buffet line. He was named Crab Kong by my kids. I had to disassemble some LR to get him out and return him to the LFS. The Lfs declared that he should be completely reef safe because the pads on the end of his claws meant that he was an algae eater. Another Emerald may not have been a true Emerald. It started off green but as it aged it turned black. It grew larger then the other Emeralds I have had. It became a carnivore, preferring live food, and a vandal. My kids named him Crabzilla. Emeralds are off my reef safe list. kevin Crabzilla! Crab Kong! Link to comment
doomdev Posted August 17, 2011 Author Share Posted August 17, 2011 Ok thought I'd post an update. I took all the rocks out today to get ready to move to school and I found a baby mantis shrimp so in this case my emerald crab may not have been so evil, but thanks for your opinions i dont think ill keep crabs anymore anyways Link to comment
Trogdor447 Posted August 17, 2011 Share Posted August 17, 2011 Ok thought I'd post an update. I took all the rocks out today to get ready to move to school and I found a baby mantis shrimp so in this case my emerald crab may not have been so evil, but thanks for your opinions i dont think ill keep crabs anymore anyways Crabs are hit or miss - if they are hungry - they will eat.. they don't care if the snack is your 100 dollar fish or a 3 dollar damsel.. Never the less - a baby mantis could have done the damage as well Link to comment
doomdev Posted August 17, 2011 Author Share Posted August 17, 2011 I don't think I'm going to blame the baby as a 1 inch fish went missing completely and this thing wasn't even half an inch but i think the parent is in there somewhere i heard flopping around when i brought the rock out and i put back in the tank to try and get whatever it is out of the rock and brought it out there was still the same flopping and the two fish i know for sure were in the tank are still there Link to comment
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