will sally lightfoot crab eat or damage my corals?

dandoozled

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I put it in my 13.5g tank, lfs owner told me it only feeds on algae, but I've been seeing online some people had ones w/ aggressive behavior ... I don't have any fish in the tank yet, so I'm just curious about the corals.
 
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dandoozled

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I can take pic of it also it's just chillin on a rock, It ate brine shrimp earlier actually!
I have 2 other crabs, emerald + small hermit crab, they don't seem to pay any attnetion to one another so far.
IMG-1759.JPG
IMG-1758.JPG
 
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dandoozled

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I know once they get full grown depending on the size of your fish they have been know to kill fish.
like any fish or smaller fish? I wanted to add maybe a royal gramma + clown pair
 

Midrats

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They will definitely reach out and touch someone, especially in a smaller tank, I'd pass personally, they get around 3".
 

mcdrichj

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oh yeah It keeps growing out of nowhere
Yeah, it looks like cyano bacteria. It is pretty easy to get rid of. I had to use chemiclean it took 2 rounds of it and its been gone ever since. If you decide to use this just follow the directions exactly. You can find a bunch of information if you search the forums.
 

wallyg

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I was told they were reef safe. I had one and it killed my feather duster the first night it was added to my tank. I would pass.
 

FishLipz

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They are opportunistic omnivores so they definitely are a risk. I’ve seen stories of small fish, zoas, and other inverts being lost to them so it’s definitely not an isolated event.
 

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Sally Lightfoot crabs have been on my banned list for years. My experience was that they are better descried as predatory omnivores.

They ae probably fine in a large FOWLR type setup, but I would not keep one in a small tank or small fish situation...
 
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dandoozled

dandoozled

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Sally Lightfoots have been on my banned list for years. My experience was that they are better descried as predatory omnivores. they ae probably fine in a large FOWLR type setup, but I would not keep one in a small tank or fish situation...
ok thank you I shall try to get him out lol
 

Paul B

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They won't eat your corals but they may go into your refrigerator and eat last nights chicken surprise.

They are not sub marine crabs and are intertidal creatures, and spend most of their time just out of the water eating algae.
Virtually all of them that I had, about 5 climbed out and took a trip across my house to croak under some furniture. If any rock is near the top and side, they will run away. o_O

They are all over the tropics, "on land". When you go near them, they jump in the water. Not really suited for a reef tank
 

sfin52

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My buddy has one and it's eaten a few fish. I would not put one in a reef tank
 

BloopFish

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I was told they were reef safe. I had one and it killed my feather duster the first night it was added to my tank. I would pass.
Interesting, I've kept dozens of sally lightfoots with feather dusters. I once had a tank with at least 10 sally lightfoots and countless numbers of Hawaiian featherdusters and I didn't observe this.

On another note, I have kept countless number of sally lightfoots (I caught them myself a long time ago) before with fish and I've never had an issue with them eating fish... but my tank had PLENTY of algae for them to eat so I'm sure they weren't hungry enough to attack anything. My theory is that the majority of cases where algae eating crabs turn rogue and eat corals or fish is due to lack of food or the fact that the fish was already sick and dying.
I also personally would be cautious to add a sally lightfoot without a major hair algae problem (from my experience they love that stuff) due to the reasoning above.
 
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