Emerald Crabs Not Reef Safe

[bakeman2022]

I purchased a cleanup crew about a week ago. It included 3 emerald crabs. They have been doing a fantastic job.
Today, I got an order in with two anemone's - a ritteri and a peppermint.
The peppermint is a sand base anemone so I dug a hole in the sand about 2 inches from the rocks and placed the peppermint into the hole.
As I released the anemone and started moving my hand away, an emerald crab coming shooting out from under the rocks and grabbed the anemone and started pulling it into the rocks. I had to intervene to save the anemone. I then placed the pepperment further away from the rocks. Later that night (after the lights had gone out) I took a flash light to check to see if the pepperment had finished securing itself to the bottom of the tank and sure enough, there was the crab heading towards the pepperment. I quickly pulled out a net and netted him since he was away from the rocks. I started to do some research and I found an old forum here in reef2reef where people talked about emerald crabs pinch off tentacles from bubble tip anemones as well as eating their corals. So I quickly took my flashlight to try to find the other 2 crabs. Sure enough, they were both heading to the top of the rocks where my ritteri had settled in. So I quickly took some tongs and were able to capture both of them before they could interact with the ritteri. I just spent almost 300 bucks on two anemones only to have them harasser and possible killed by $5 crabs. In any case, I thought I would post this so everyone knows to be aware that emerald crabs (IMHO) are NOT reef safe.

I hope this helps other people as they decide on their cleaning crew.

Thank you.

 

[SnazzyUrchin792]

Interesting. My emerald crabs have never messed with any coral, including anemones.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

That's interesting, I always thought emerald crabs were generally reef safe

 

[twentyleagues]

I will say any crab or shrimp for that matter is reef safe with caution. Obviously some crabs are not reef safe at all. I am talking about the typical "reef safe" options. I have had emerald crabs go rogue same for cleaner shrimp and blood shrimp, peppermint shrimp, sexy shrimp, pitho crabs.

 

[kevgib67]

I’ve had emerald crabs in most of my 18 years of reefing and have never had a problem. Although, other than rfas , I’ve never kept anemones.