EmerAld crab ate my duncan

[CleverBs]

One of my deals crabs ate a head of my Duncan today. This seems odd. There is plenty of green hair algae in the tank for them to eat. What's the deal? How can I prevent this in the future?

[Sniperhank]

Define ate. I have a hard time believing an emerald ate a duncan. Maybe something that was marketed as one and wasnt? Got a pic?

[MacDracor]

I had an emerald crab for one night. He was in my tank for less than 2 hours before I caught him eating my zoas. He finished off at least 3 polyps before I shooed him away, figuring it was an isolated incident and he just hadn't found the algae yet. An hour later, he was eating my torch. And I totally mean eating. Finished off several tentacles before I caught him and returned him to the LFS.
While Emeralds will eat the stuff we don't want, crabs are opportunistic feeders. If they find yummy corals and aren't currently stuffed full, they will eat those yummy corals.
It's too bad. I think they're pretty cool looking. I won't risk another one, though.

[CleverBs]

I know my saltwater critters it's a emerald clearly...kinda hard to mistake an emerald crab if you have half a brain. I have seen him eating zoos in the past one time and then he never touched them again. He ate all the flesh out of the skeleton on the Duncan I have one of the heads that is completely cleaned out and I saw him doing it when I came home. Very upsetting. So I moved it up onto my rocks and am hoping it doesn't happen again other wise I'll be fishing for crabs soon haha.

[MacDracor]

I think Sniper was thinking perhaps the Duncan was mislabeled? A lot of corals look very similar, and not every LFS has staff who know when something is mislabeled.

[Gti_Leo]

thats not an uncommon thing. if they aren't well fed crabs can eat corals. if you see this and you have a refugium you can always throw the crab in there to help keep thinks pruned or you can give it to soemone with a FOWLR that doesn't have to worry about corals

[CleverBs]

my fuge is a hob aqua clear 70 that has a blocked area would it be ok in there?

[Gti_Leo]

i wouldn;t keep it in to small of an area, it might get stressed out

[MacDracor]

I have some bubble algae, which is why I got my emerald. Sadly, it looks like I'm going to have to deal with the bubbles on my own. The crab is just too risky for me. Maybe if I have a larger tank in the future, I'll give it a try again, but for now...
And Gti is right. Not enough room in an aqua clear. How many Emeralds do you have? They might be competing too much for food if you have more than one in a 25g tank.

[CleverBs]

I have 2 but there is tons of food for them I can see it. The other one is always grazing on algae and this one seems to like other things more.

[AquaRick]

Yup, my emerald ate my cleaner, fire, and 3 peppermint shrimps. Off to the fuge he went.

[Sniperhank]

Wow. I can't even believe that. There has to be nothing for him to eat in you dt or they weren't doing well. All I can think about that. I have 3 in my 36 gal and don't bother anything...I have a ton of algae in mine though. Who needs to paint the back glass when you can make algae grow on it imo.

[CleverBs]

I think mines going to be food for someone. Because im not letting some pesky crab eat my corals. Unless he would be ok in my aquaclear fuge, it's just full of chaeto

[zambono]

A previous emerald I had went crazy on my polyps

[MacDracor]

It seems to be hit or miss. A LOT of people have no problems with Emerald crabs, while some just pick up a bad one who really loves that polypy taste. It also doesn't seem to be related to how much food is present. They just... eat what/when/where they feel like it.

[CleverBs]

when I feed my inverts a peice of shrimp the one that eats corals will be over eating the shrimp and the one who doesnt bother anything eats algae in the tank while everything else is eating the shrimp. so I think maybe some crabs like meat more then others.

[MacDracor]

That could be part of it, or it could be that meat is an acquired taste for emerald crabs. And once acquired, it's a favorite. Hard to say...

[BallinCrew10]

I had an emerald that made a habit of climbing on my Kenya tree and picking algae off it. Would find it there every night after work for a little while. Kenya tree was fine. Some say they're hit or miss. I've never had a problem.

[bskerrichard27]

I have 3 in a 55 and one in a 24 so far they have not bothered anything I'm keeping my fingers crossed

[MacDracor]

Awesome pic of the tree climbing crab!