Emerald Crab picking at Tuxedo Urchin

[peterdeppe]

Hi, for the most part my tuxedo urchin and emerald crab have been getting together fine. Lately however, I've noticed the emerald crab picking (some times ripping) the tux's camouflage off him. The couple times I've seen this, I've carefully broken the two up and the emerald crab usually goes and finds something else to snack on. I know people are pretty fickle about emerald crabs but up until know he's been a perfectly behaved little crab and I'm hoping he will continue to be and this is something I don't need to worry about.

 

Is the emerald crab likely to hurt/kill my tuxedo or is he really just interested in the macro algae in the tux's camo and the tux will likely be fine?

 

Thanks!