TheReefDiary
Valuable Member
for an emerald crab yesterday and that biotch ate one of my ricordea frags. back to the store for him already. no more crabs.
emerald crab back to lfs after 1 day. I should've listened.
- Thread starter TheReefDiary
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sorry for the loss of your frag 
stoney7713
10K Club member
That sucks, sorry to hear that.
I was worried to death when I placed an order on reefcleaners, I got a CUC that included an emerald crab, I requested a female as the are easy to sex and supposedly less likely to eat coral.
It has only been 3 weeks but she hasn't touched a single coral, went straight to work scraping rocks and cleaning the sand of waste.
jabberwock
2500 Club Member
NO CRABS EVER!
landlubber
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IME they're opportunistic feeders. if you have something for them to eat they'll generally accept it before they go to corals. Regardless of sex one thing they're all guilty of is being incredibly strong animals and will not hesitate to push liverock around so be cautious how you stack
Rit6942
Active Member
Prolly not feeding ur tank enough if an emerald crab picking at a coral........crabs are good for the reef tank.......but if your the type to starve or barely feed ur tank fish n corals.....they will eat to survive.......
A Young Reefer
Valuable Member
Given that it took the crab one day to do this; I think what you are saying is not the case here.
Rit6942
Active Member
Well lets see.......small Nano tank thats only a few months old........no real live rock or sand....("life rock" doesnt really count)........tank isnt even cycled yet or had time to mature and growth develop........so a sterile environment for that crab..........and corals already in that tank? Moving kinda quick.........this hobby a marathon not a sprint.......the smaller the tank the harder it is to keep...........the less you can put in it for fish corals n inverts..........
OP
OP
TheReefDiary
Valuable Member
I woke up to a mushroom frag torn from it's plug. I think he wasn't necessarily going after the coral as there was some algae around there but he wasn't car ful enough so he lost his job.
OP
OP
TheReefDiary
Valuable Member
I have algae in the tank plenty of it. my rocks are relatively green almost everywhere at this point. I get algae growth on the glass.
and yes my corals are thriving in the tank. I've added 2 heads onto a torch. my Duncan is almost growing too fast for the tank. my ricoardeas are so puffy. my hammers are adding heads.
my nutrients are perfect level currently and my stocking isn't overdone. only 3 fish and a handful of various snails.
OP
OP
TheReefDiary
Valuable Member
I think I just got a jerk crab. the manager at the store said he's had a few jerks in his personal tank. most of the time they're completely fine. and honestly he may have been doing his job but was right up on the coral. I just added a few more snails instead. they seem to be doing well enough as a CUC anyway without the help of a crab.
Everybody moves at their own pace. Some people are fine waiting other people don't want to do. It's all personal preference. Both can fail and both can work
DaJMasta
Well-Known Member
I think that was likely a knee-jerk response to a coincidental loss. I've never even heard of an emerald crab eating a mushroom, and I've had a dozen or more over the years in tanks with ricordea and had no attributable losses.
From the most recent post, it wasn't even a loss and maybe the ricordea got up off the base on its own? They don't always stay put and have the ability to detach and drift somewhat like an anemone (though they don't reattach nearly as well).
You did more work than you needed to and got rid of something that probably only would help. If you suspect something is eating something or bothering something, closely observe it and see if you can actually see it happening, or at most separate them and see if anything changes before taking drastic action, otherwise you'll shun plenty of viable livestock options out of prejudice and make lots more work and worry for yourself in the process.
From the most recent post, it wasn't even a loss and maybe the ricordea got up off the base on its own? They don't always stay put and have the ability to detach and drift somewhat like an anemone (though they don't reattach nearly as well).
You did more work than you needed to and got rid of something that probably only would help. If you suspect something is eating something or bothering something, closely observe it and see if you can actually see it happening, or at most separate them and see if anything changes before taking drastic action, otherwise you'll shun plenty of viable livestock options out of prejudice and make lots more work and worry for yourself in the process.
OP
OP
TheReefDiary
Valuable Member
he ate a portion of it and ripped it off the plug it was on. luckily it was my worst ricordea that never seemed to become happy in the tank like the others although it was on the mend.
Eienna
5000 Club Member
Some LFS really don't feed, and they already come in starved from travel a lot of the time.
you just got a rogue crab. it happens all animals are different some act normally and some want to light the world on fire thats just how it goes. I had a clownfish that i genuinely think would try and kill me if it was feasibly possible.
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