Emerald Crab Reef Safe

[Tito2491]

I just bought a tiny Emerald Crab from my LFS and I've read on the forums that they are generally reef safe but read in some cases they pick on sps polpys and etc , Are They Reef Safe ?

[FishFrik]

They are not 100% reef safe. If they are hungry and there's nothing to munch on, sps will be their food. I had one and it munched on my star polyps and yellow leather T.T My yellow leather died from the wound. $40 treat for a small crab

[Civicman86]

I have no had mine go for any corals yet.

[ntswift]

I've had mine for a while now and I can't really deny that it hasn't eaten any corals because I've had a flame angel in there at the same time. I noticed that a few of my small mushrooms were disappearing slowly but I still don't know who did it. My flame died this last weekend so we'll see who it really was/is because i have a few small mushrooms left. I will agree with fishfrik on this that they are not 100% reef safe, but for the most part I've heard that they are if they are well fed. HTH

[lando]

No problems with mine.

[reeling reefer]

I have had 2 of them for 2 years no problems

[jaiden]

I am NOT an expert on this at all, but it's my impression that there are two kinds of emeralds, one with small claws and one with larger ones. I *THINK* that the larger ones are more prone to damage corals. I would be curious to know what kind people have experience with and whether my suspicion is correct.

[Feron]

Well, my large claw ones would pretty much eat anything not nailed down (including trying for the occasional sleeping fishy it seems).
My small clawed ones eat the bits of algae they find and prepared foods that flow their way.

So far the large ones are doing well at learning their place in my aggressive tank <snicker>

[melosu58]

Never had a problem with mine

[Tito2491]

Thanks for the experiences, Mines has small claws so hopefully he wont pick on anything