Witnessed my ruby emerald crab dismantling bubble algae

[daikaijureefer]

was happy to see my ruby emerald dismantling some bubble algae.

 

[UncommonSense]

was happy to see my ruby emerald dismantling some bubble algae.

these are also known as a Red Mithrax Crab; voracious eaters!

Keep an eye on him, and your corals… mine started devouring soft coral and gorgonian polyps after around two weeks in the tank… I’ve seen others catch them eating SPS, polyp by polyp, too!

 

[daikaijureefer]

was happy to see my ruby emerald dismantling some bubble algae.

these are also known as a Red Mithrax Crab; voracious eaters!

Keep an eye on him, and your corals… mine started devouring soft coral and gorgonian polyps after around two weeks in the tank… I’ve seen others catch them eating SPS, polyp by polyp, too!

Yeah I am watching him. I think he killed a much smaller green emerald crab that I added at the same time but I can’t prove it.

He hasn’t messed with my other emerald at all tho. I think there is respect there.

This red Mithrax does throw claws at the fish sometimes though, which is pretty hilarious bc they are big enough and the fish are like “whatever dude”.

It hasn’t bothered the sps at all.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

That's awesome you were able to get a video of that!

 

[PitzBen]

I bought three emerald crabs (Mithraculus sculptus) three weeks ago, but I haven’t seen any reduction in these bubble algae. I don’t know why. My local fish store recommended that I buy a blond Naso tang, which apparently loves these algae. I can’t find any information online to confirm this. Can anyone confirm this?

 

[Tony Thompson]

For anyone interested, there has been some research on this, here is are a few extracts from the paper, I have attached the full paper below.

For people not having the time or patience to read the article (me included most of the time), I have extracted what I presume are the relevant portions.

"Mithraculus sculptus to control the bubble alga Ventricaria ventricosa" " in the presence of alternative foods (commercial pellets and frozen mysids)"

" Although, M. sculptus first chose alternative foods to bubble alga (77% and 69% of the time chose pellets and frozen mysids,respectively), algal consumption only decreased significantly if," , "pellets were provided;"

"when only algae were provided, algal consumption was similar to when they were provided with mysids."

"These results seem to indicate that M. sculptus might not be such an efficient bio-controller of the pest V. ventricosa as previously thought, particularly when pellets are used as food; however, its bio-control efficiency might be improved if, mysids are used as food."


















"joana figueiredo1,2, lus narciso1, ralph turingan2 and junda lin21Laborato´rio Marı´timo da Guia – IMAR, Departamento de Biologia Animal, Faculdade de Cieˆncias da Universidade de Lisboa,Forte N.S. da Guia, Estrada do Guincho, 2750-374 Cascais, Portugal, 2Florida Institute of Technology, Department of BiologicalSciences, 150 W. University Boulevard, Melbourne, Florida 32901, USA"

 

[W31Olds]

Be wary as you might find your ruby emerald dismantling your LPS as well. I have one and found him munching on my Duncans at night.

 

[PitzBen]

Thank you very much for the advice; I'll take a close look at this PDF.