Emerald Crab molt?

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cheesy318

Aquarium Advice Activist
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Jul 17, 2013
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We purchased an emerald crab a while back. Well I found it munching on the lawnmower blenny. THe man swears up and down it died. And he threw it away. I've tried to research it but have come up with nothing. Do emerald crabs molt?
That's the only crab we have besides an arrow crab.
 
Emerald crabs do molt, but I'm not sure I understand the rest of your post, are you asking if yours killed your blenny?

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What exactly was thrown away.....hopefully the molted shell? When I had an emerald crab, he indeed molted, but was horrified because I thought he died. threw away the shell, and was shocked to see a bigger version of him crawling around lol
 
I doubt it caught and killed the algae blenny.


Agreed completely

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Yes I was the one that pulled what looked like the grab out of the tank. I even took a closer look at it and it looked liked the grab. Up to last night we haven't seen it and it's like three time it size.
 
Emerald crabs do molt, but I'm not sure I understand the rest of your post, are you asking if yours killed your blenny?

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Not asking if it killed the Blenny, I just seen it eating it. I'm asking if they molt because the man thought the emerald crab died so he picked out the crab and threw him away. Now The emerald card is a lot larger and made me wonder where it came from if it was thrown away. If he molted it explains everything. If they don't, then we have a hitchhiker.

I did read that emerald crabs do catch and eat small fish. The Blenny was not very large.
 
All crabs molt when they out grow the current shell.
In terms of an emerald catching a healthy fish, no way. They are opportunistic, so if it 'caught' something then it was sick and dying.
 
When you read about certain slow moving predators like some crabs catching healthy fish it's just that the fish was ill or dying/dead and the tank owner was unaware, and just caught the end result.
Yes, crabs do molt, and it's very possible this is what you threw away.
 
My crabs and shrimp eat their molted shell look it it it restores their needed nuitrients to harden their shell again
 
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