Can emerald crabs mistake ceriths for food?

so i'm sitting here watching my crab, he's at the front of the glass, hasn't bothered the inverts, just crawled over them, then he knocked over a cerith that was on the glass, he was first startled by it, then he started to pick it up with his claws and started it putting it towards his mouth. I slightly tapped on the glass and he droppped it.

Could this be an accident as he was fine with everything, so is this normal of him?

 

All crabs are opportunistic feeders so it's possible that the crab did it on purpose. It's also possible that the crab was only trying to eat the algae on the snail's shell.

 

ya i dont think that the emerald crab would eat the snail there herbevores and there claws arent designed to eat flesh if you look they look like salad tongs there flat on the ends i wouldnt worry about it

 

ok, he was going around picking at algae on the glass, wish he would eat the bubble algae instead, but i think it is possible for the algae to be on the snails shell because he ignored the other ceriths and would just crawl over them

ok, i was just wanting to make sure

 

emerald crabs are herbivores in the wild... try target feeding an emerald crab with a piece of formula 1 flake, or some frozen brine. I'd bet a million bucks you just converted that crab to a carnivore in seconds.

But as for your emmy becoming a snail assassin, I wouldn't worry too much about that. Even though mine has managed to catch a piece of meaty food floating by, I've never seen it stalk snails the way peppermint shrimp do.

 

lol ok deffiently won't be target feeding him some frozen brine

 

Emerald crabs are omnivores. Make no mistake they can and will eat flesh if it is available. In fact they get way more excited over meat than any algae in my experience.

He might have accidentally knocked the snail over and then thought "hey there is a snail on its back I can eat" or like amcarrig said he was trying to eat the algae off the shell.

I wouldn't worry about him killing snails just yet. Unless the snail is on its back he would have a hard time getting to the meaty parts.