Reef safe...uhhh NO

Had a couple spots of bubble algae and decided to get an emerald crab. It's been a week and he's ate most of the algae but there's still a couple spots left. I just so happened to go over to my tank and look in with my maglite like I do nearly every night and there that !@$$#@%@#^ crab was eating my neon orange mushroom. He was ripping it to pieces!! So reef safe, I think not.

For now he's in my 20L with no corals.

UGH!! My cat may get a bowl of crab soup tomorrow!

 

Damn SOB! It does happen, ish that is.

 

Apparently there are a few different types of 'mithrax' species that are sold as emeralds that look almost identical and are often mislabelled ... and end up picking at corals.

This also seems to happen a lot with peppermint shrimp and its twin the camel shrimp which is not going to touch your aiptasia ...

Just a thought

 

If he ate most of the algae, he may be getting hungry and eating what he can find. Some people supplement feed the with nori etc... once they have taken care of most of the algae.I've had good luck with mine but I know others have not been so lucky. Sorry to hear you're having troubles.

 

Sorry to hear that! As someone else mentioned, he might be getting hungry because most of the algae is gone. Hopefully the store will take him back!

 

He may have very well been hungry but there was some bubble algae literally 3 inches away from the mushroom! Oh well...live and learn I guess. I know the LFS will take him back but this is finals week so that will have to wait for now. I really liked the guy so it saddens me to have to get rid of him, but I can't risk him eating any more coral. I put too much time and money into my tank to let a little crab destroy it.

Maybe I'll try a porcelain crab.

 

Sorry to hear that. Crabs are opportunists unfortunately. Manual removal of pests, such as bubble algae is always a safer route, but that said, "most" of the time crabs don't do any damage.