Emerald crab eating zoas???

[DurTBear]

I saw my emerald crab eating a new frag of blue zoas today and had to scare him off. Is this normal?

 

[blazeyreef]

ive never heard of an emerald crab eating zoa's ....they eat bubble algae etc. weird

 

[DurTBear]

Yeah, I thought it was really weird. But he was pulling off the tentacles of the zoas. Getting kind of worried. I've also noticed that this guy eats the tubes of the feather dusters in the tank. He doesn't eat the worm itself but all the tubes that the feather dusters live in are totally wiped out.

 

[blazeyreef]

are you sure its an emerald crab?

 

[DurTBear]

Yeah, positive it's an emerald crab...

 

[Devilishturtles]

I thought I heard before that it's rare for them to pick corals, but that some will. Might want to look into taking it back to the store if you can.

 

[JM]

Is your tank new or has it been set up for a long time?? I've read that it isn't out of the ordinary for them to pick at zoes and other small corals if they don't have a sufficient amount of algae to feed on. This could be the problem or maybe u just go one that has expensive taste. lol

 

[melosu58]

Yes you`ll need to get rid of him. Maybe put in sump if you have one or trade him back to the LFS. IMO once a coral muncher always a coral muncher. Next time you see him take the oppurtunity to grab him. They are not that fast.

 

[DurTBear]

Yeah, it's a relatively new tank. It's been up and running for about 3 months now. Ok...I'll keep an eye on him but if I see him munching on coral again, I'll take him back. Too bad because I really like the guy. He's got a lot of personality. I actually thought I had killed him accidentally by crushing him. But in the end, it was just his molted exoskeleton that I crushed.

 

[JM]

Sounds like the tank might be a little too new and lack enough food for him. You can try using a rubber band to fasten an algae sheet to a small peice of rock and put it somewhere alway from the zoas and he should go and much on that. It will supplement his diet from anything that might be missing in the tank and distract him from munching ur coral.

 

[DurTBear]

That sounds like a good idea. So I can pretty much just get algae sheets at the LFS? That guy pretty much grazes 24/7. I used to have a pretty decent amount of caulerpa and he devoured all of it in one night.

 

[JM]

My LFS sells a bunch of different algae sheets. I use Ocean Nutrition algae sheets. Either green or brown. The crab should find it and stay close as long as you always have some in there. Then as your tank ages and you get some more growth you can stop using the sheets. Good luck

 

[DurTBear]

Cool...thanks for the tips. I'll probably pick some up tonight. I also might increase my light cycle to encourage a little more algae growth.

 

[melosu58]

Your LFS, Petsmart or petco. They should all have some.

 

[DurTBear]

Thanks guys...the algae mat/seaweed definitely kept the emerald busy last night. He didn't move away from it until he had eaten all of it although he left quite a pile of "waste" there when he was done...I guess they don't take long to process the food they eat!

 

[JM]

its good to hear that it worked. I wouldn't be concerned about the waste that he leaves behind, its probably no more than he leaves normally. Its just because he is hanging out in one spot while eating the algae sheet. Nassarius snails are pretty good at getting rid of waste of all kinds so maybe u can pick up a few of those if you dont have any already.