emerald crabs

[cindyandjosh]

is two emerald crabs plus one white hitchhiker crabs to many for a 12 gallon nano cube

[clown fish rule]

no

[lgreen]

yes! bad clownfishrule!

 

you shouldn't have even 1 in a 12g! when they get bigger they have the potential to catch fish.

 

since they are herbivores, chances are good that 2 in a 12g may starve.

[cindyandjosh]

the reason I ask is this

 

I have a month old nano cube (12 gal.) The NH and Nitrate levels are 0 and pH and phospate levels are fine. I get my water tested almost every other day by the pet store where I buy all my fish. Yesterday we added 2 baby perculas that have died. I thought it was because a week ago we added a yellow tailed damsel and the aggressive nature of the damsel caused the death. Due to stress the second percula died as well later this afternoon. We bought two new perculas and one is dead (about 5 hours after we put him in). The other percula is now swiming in a corner of the tank above the power head. I fear he is also stressed and will die soon. What do I do? I have 2 emerald crabs and another small crab that was hiding in my live rock. I also have a small piece of coral. Please give me some advice.

[lgreen]

i doubt if having the emerald crabs has anything to do w/ your clown problem.

[sir winston mulligan]

ive seen my emerald crab reach for my twinspot gobie but he never catchs him...im with lgreen on this one..im more concerned about the white hitchhiker crab, any idea on what kind it is?

[cindyandjosh]

No not yet, I was looking at my live rock and I saw what looked like a little white spider leg come out of a hole and he would poke out a leg and then go back in I finally got a good view of him but I don't have a fully charged digital camera avail. I wish I did know what species it was though the only real knowledge I have of fishes are my goldfish i have in the living room and the beta we have in the kitchen all doing great. One of our emeral crabs has the diameter of about an inch the other one is super small. Both of them hide deep in the LV so we rarely see them

[sNEIRBO]

I have an Emerald Crab in a 24 Gallon Nano Cube with 2 Percs (1 True and 1 B&W) - no problems with him. I call him "W.C." after W.C. Fields, because of the way he shoos away my Cleaner Shrimp whenever he's eating. The coolest thing I've ever seen that Crab do, was devour some Bubble Algae one afternoon. He sat and studied that algae for about 5 minutes, then he pounced on it. When he was done, there wasn't a trace of it left anywhere. VERY cool to watch!

 

As far as hitchhiker crabs go, I've had a couple of instances where I've seen my Hermit Crabs eating parts of what I thought was one of their brethren. But I can always account for all of my Hermit Crabs afterwards. I clean up whatever I see laying around, and these are definitely hermit crab "parts" - legs and what not. Since I can account for all of my crabs, I've been wondering if these are hitch hiker hermits that were living in the crevices of the LR, and got caught out and about without a shell.

[dcabboa]

sNeirbo - likely those crab parts are molts. Crabs molt their exoskeletons every so often and leave them lying around.

[sNEIRBO]

There was "meat" attached to some of the legs. And all of my Hermits were "feeding" on something.

 

My cleaner shrimp has molted a couple of times, freaks me out each time he does it, I always think some how a second shrimp got in the tank.

[dcabboa]

sNeirbo,

 

Yeah, with mine, it looks like meat - some white matter that holds all the legs together. And everyone hops on it to snack. With the cleaners and other shrimp, they seem to leave just a paper thin shell with no meat in it, but they get scavanged, too.

[MattGecko]

I might be committing a Nano-sin but I have 2 Emerald crabs in my 12g Nanocube. They share the tank with a Strawberry Dottyback and 2 peppermint shrimp and everybody gets along just fine. I do feed the tank flake food once a day and once a week I hatch brine shrimp.

 

When I got the bigger of the two Emerald crads he was missing one of his claws. Anyone know if it will grow back?

[lgreen]

yes it will grow back.

[cindyandjosh]

I feel very threated by my crabs now, can i do without them?

[Fenix]

Threatened by your crabs? Those must be some aggresive crabs! Do they have access to weapons? If not, don't worry - you have the weapon they fear the most . . . FLUSH! Just kidding! If you don't like them, take them back to your LFS for a trade in / trade up. Or if you live by the Ocean take them for a "walk" - but you HAVE to carry a boombox playing "Born Free" as they scuttle into the surf!

[sox]

My emerald crab and 2 false percs have been fine in my 10gal for about a year now. Keep the crabs, send back the damsel!

[embryoguy]

two emerald crabs in a 12 nc is absolutely fine. i have 5 emerald crabs in a 20 L. 2 in a6 nc, 2 emeralds in 12g ncs. for over a year. if your fish dies its not bec the emerald caught it, its bec it died for other reasons and the emerald is taking advantage of its death.

 

they will NOT starve to death and the risk of them catching a fish is so remote. you have a greater risk of your nc "cracking" instead.

[Conlius]

im not really sure what to say about this. I have a 5 gallon nano, i have 1 descent sized male emerald crab...about 20 hermit crabs...from blue leg, red scarlet, red leg...and about 25 snails...astrea, nassarius, and others...

 

snails are usually just cruising around under the sand, or on the glass, hermits knock almost any coral over that I throw in the tank.

 

I am also planning on upgrading though, but I have had no water level problems, and the emerald is scared as hell of my 2 clown fish

[cindyandjosh]

Now I only have one crab the yellowtail is gone, but now I'm combating Ich

[steelhealr]

I'll join MattGecko (ducking)...I have two in my 24G. However, bought one when I thought the other was dead. Both of them have not been a problem to date. SH

[maj0rglitch]

I have a 12g cube with a sailfin tang, a cleaner shrimp, 3 astrea snails and an emerald crab. First 20 minutes of putting the cleaner shrimp the emerald crab tried to catch the shrimp.

Next morning the cleaner shrimp was lying on the sand with most of the legs gone and the middle part where the legs were got eaten. My emerald crab was about 1.5 inch big returned it the same day where I bought it.

[sNEIRBO]

A couple of times per week, I put some invert food in my tank. I just use Large Pellets and release them underwater. The first 2 that always get the food are my Cleaner Shrimp and my Emerald Crab. The Hermits fight for the scraps.

 

I'd agree with what other people said above, I would doubt the Emerald Crab would move fast enough, or stealthy enough to grab something to kill and eat. The shrimp probably died of other reasons, and the Crab was doing his job - cleanup.

[steelhealr]

Agree with SNEIRBO...my skunk cleaner moves fast when it wants to. Sometimes. I'll pitch in a shrimp pellet from my FW stash....they love that stuff. SH

[Cellenzweig]

I have a 12g cube with a sailfin tang

I think I hear sirens...

[maj0rglitch]

I might be wrong but I think a two inch tang would be fine in a 12 gallon alone.

 

I know it will outgrow the tank but I have a 80 gallon tank waiting to be shipped.