Red Mithrax Crabs

[H@rry]

Years ago when we were first getting started I bought some Tampa Bay Saltwater rock and got a bunch of red Mithrax crabs as hitchhikers. I remember them eating a lot of the hair algae that ensued with a new tank. They're gone now.

I have a good bit of bubble algae now and I wonder if they would be any good at cleaning that up. I've tried the emerald crabs several times with zero results. Will the red Mithrax crabs do anything toward eating the bubbles? Will they harm any of the SPS? I'm thinking about buying some more to try.

Thanx
H@rry

 

[swannyson7]

From what I've read about them, it is simply a color morph of your everyday mithrax crab and its diet does include bubble algae. Make sure you supplement its diet with algae and pieces of shrimp and that will help keep it from picking at your corals. Like many scavengers... if it runs out of food, it may take a liking to your prized colony!

 

[650-IS350]

or Fish and other tank inhabitants as it gets larger