Looking for Emerald Crab locally

[Guest sfshea]

Does anyone know where I can get an Emerald Crab locally? Need to get rid of bubble algae

[HowardofNOVA]

The Reef Tank www.reefstore.com carries them and for a good price. Call first before you drive down to Springfield.

 

GREAT CLEANERS! I have 4 of them.

Howard

[michaelg]

roozen's nursery from where you are located might be the closest.

[Guest mightymouse]

sorry i hadnt seen this yesterday i gave one away to a store near my house because he ate a mushroom and started on my new encrusting gorgonian but if i were you id be careful mine started eating coral and there is plenty of food in the tank for him . . .

Edited March 5, 2005 by mightymouse

[emissary]

I had two in my main tank. They ripped my sailfin tang to shreds. Didn't know what it was until the tang had healed and then a few days later I found the tang dead being ripped apart ... crab was caught "red handed." :-\

 

I keep a pair in a 10G tank. I put problem rocks in there to get cleaned and then return them to the main tank. Works out... sortof. Clearly can't move some of the lower rock pieces though ... but it's handy when I buy a coral that has bubble algae on it. I bought a sarcophyton a while back, ripped it off the rock, put it in my main tank where it attached and threw the buble-rife rock in the 10G. Yesterday I pulled that rock out (clean) and put it in my main tank. The base of the ripped-off sarco is growing...

 

-Yanek.

[Grav]

I wouldn't assume that because the crab was eating a dead fish that he caused the death. They will jump on anything dead.

 

 

I had two in my main tank.  They ripped my sailfin tang to shreds.  Didn't know what it was until the tang had healed and then a few days later I found the tang dead being ripped apart ... crab was caught "red handed." :-\

-Yanek.

27834[/snapback]

[xeon]

Bubble algae is a huge pain IMO. An emerald crab is hit and miss with it. Some will mess with it, others not. At the same time, I'm not sure I would want them mashing the bubbles with their claws to eat them. The best scenario (IMO) is to carefully remove the bubbles manually if possible.

 

One of the biggies in removing it is to make sure you do not pop them and release their spores into the tank. That is why I'm not keen on depending on a emerald crab, who may very well be propagating further.

[HowardofNOVA]

Ditto's on Phil and Dave said,

I got 4 of them and one is huge!

Awesome for keeping the tank clean, hair algae, etc. Have NEVER seen them do anything remotely bad to other crabs, fish or corals. But as mentioned, eating a dead fish and Killing it are 2 different things all together, remember they are just great scavengers.

Howard

[Lee Stearns]

I have two in my main tank and one in a nano cube which I get to watch fiarly closely- One of the two in my main tank has become a monster in size biggest complaint is that almost no rock is too large for him to budge- If they can squeeze under a bit they lift them up and flip them to get at any algea- good news unless you have sps frags attached and they end up in your torch coral down below- where a stinging fest goes on all day until you return home- :( And then trying to catch him to get him out has been difficult

On bubble algea I was hoping that these guys would get them while they are small- They may be- but I have never seen one eat bubble. I find on occasion a bubble algea and take it out while it is smalll- I have read that until the buble algea gets at leats an inch in size there are no spores in it- do not know if this is true- But I do not wait- If I spot bubble I take it out immeadiately and hopefully as small as possible. I have seen some tanks where bubble has gotten out of hand and they are impossible to get back under control in large tanks. I have seen the same thing with majano and aptasia- so fight them early and often if they appear.

[emissary]

But as mentioned, eating a dead fish and Killing it are 2 different things all together, remember they are just great scavengers.

 

Yes. One week the fish was shredded but ALIVE. It recovered all its fins. Then the day after it recovered its fins (perhaps 3 weeks after the first *attack*) I found it shredded again. The crab was shredding it. It was still alive *somewhat* at that point, but it was hopeless.

 

I'm just sayin'

[OUsnakebyte]

An alternative to emerald crabs - if you are going the manual way - is to take the large end of your siphon off the hose while you have the siphon going (don't have to have it going, but it's a bit easier that way...) and get the end of the hose over the bubbles. If they are stuck and don't go right off the rocks into your siphon, scrape them with your tubing (preferably the inside edges), and they will usually come right off.

 

If the bubble does break, you should have the hose right over it so any spores will be sucked up into your siphon and not let out into your tank.

 

As Lee said, I don't know if there are any spores in the small ones, but control of it early is the best policy...

 

Cheers

Mike

[GaryL]

Yes.  One week the fish was shredded but ALIVE.  It recovered all its fins.  Then the day after it recovered its fins (perhaps 3 weeks after the first *attack*) I found it shredded again.  The crab was shredding it.  It was still alive *somewhat* at that point, but it was hopeless.

 

I'm just sayin'

27943[/snapback]

 

i was following a post on RC and they were talking abot an em-crab that was a menace. as it turned out they only diffence they saw was the claws were different, the good crabs had the cups on the end and the bad ones didnt. i have seen mine scare off fish and feel around some corals looking like it was picking at them but no harm was done. HTH