Darn Emerald Crab!

[SmyrnaReefer]

so several weeks ago i my frag tank, one of my birdsnest mini colonyies died on me over a few days. saw an emerald crab hagning out around it and thought nothing of it.. last week i came home to find my bird of paradise had one branch that was all white and an emerald crab was on it. hmm i thought, cut off the dead branch and pondered the thought that the emerald crab had something to do with it. today i came home to find my rainbow stylo turning white. what do you know, emerald crab on the bottom side of the stylo. i watched it for a minute and that stupid thing was literally pulling polyps out of the branches. i watched it pull out about 4 polyps before i stuck my hand in the tank and flicked him off. needless to say, these emerald crabs wont be making the tank move. :mad2:

 

[Dowtish]

wow!

 

[rajkovich207]

I've heard of them being a nuisance to fish and such because they get huge but never to polyps. Are you sure it's a mithrix?

 

[bigcapct]

Never seen that before!

 

[SmyrnaReefer]

Not sure how to tell. Got them from reefcleaners. There are 2 different ones and and both are probably 4" claw tip to claw tip. Nice and red in the joints..


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[AirAngel]

Is it because its so big you think?
I got one as a hitch-hiker that is about 2" and I thought that was big.
Thats too bad I think they are cool looking.

 

[TankedNTn]

You do have some pretty large crabs. Looks like you've been feeding them steroids. I had to get rid of the one I had because it looked like he was always on top of the few coral frags that I have.

 

[quigimon]

Just out of curiosity, what color are the claws?

 

[solar]

As soon as i seen him pull off 1 polyp he be outta there fending for his life in my turtle tank.

 

[rcmike]

Yep, occasionally one will go bad and do that. They don't usually just pick a polyp here and there either, they gorge themselves on them.

 

[summitwynds]

I had one big one start munching on my corals and killing them. I had the hardest time catching/trapping the bugger. It ended up having an incident with a pointy kitchen knife. Not a pretty scene, but saved my corals.

 

[Pappy]

I had the same experience with them picking at stuff. I caught 1 pulling on my utter chaos colony and that was it.

 

[TankedNTn]

I wanted to save mine but he got a free ride down the Mid. TN sewer system. Oops! I'd look in those toilets before sitting down :tsk:

 

[schooleyosis]

Mine sleeps on top of a montipora or on the hard, "trunk" part of my Duncan.


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[dwilliams87]

Can we have a crab boil? I'll bring the butta!

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