Emerald Crab ?

[spoonmerlin]

I had a lot of algae growing all over my live rock so I got some Emerald Mithrax Crabs to clean it up (my cycle just ended 1st things added) and a few pepermint shrimps to (hopefully) get ride of some pest anemeones.

After they are done cleaning up I hope to keep the shrimp and some or all of the crabs. I have a 65 gal with 40# of LR (from LR.com gulf full of life so plenty of food) and 30# of base rock. I have a monster wet/dry filter (rated for 300+ gal) and a big PS (rated for 175gal) My question is as long as I feed them after they run out of food from the LR am I ok with 5 of each? I don't plan to add any more crabs or shrimp.
I am adding snails in about a week if the levels stay stable. Then I plan to get an eel (if I don't change my mine again) and it will be pretty much the only fish for awhile and maybe so coral (PC lights ).

The crabs are mostly med(1½") to large(2"). smallest is quarter sized and largest it 2-2½"

 

[jamal-188]

I have 4 emerald crabs but they don't appear to eat any prepared food that I feed to the rest of my tank. they spend all day picking at my LR....so IMO 5 may possibly run out of foood with that amount of LR.

Although, If you plan on purchasing an eel you won't have to worry about the crabs/shrimp running out of food becasue it will eat them all. FME eels wil eat just about anything they can fit in their mouths, and will often even eat things that are too large by ripping whole fish into pieces with their razor teeth.