Can emerald crabs "swim"?

[bronck83]

I added a small emerald crab to my biocube the other day & I haven't seen him since a few hours after putting him in. There are some nooks & crannies between my rock & backwall. I have a feeling he was crawling around & might have fell down back there. Do they have the ability to swim/crawl straight up? I really don't want to have to dismantle my whole rock structure to get him out.:thumbs_down:

[MissT]

They can crawl up pretty much anything. If you ever get the pleasure of wrapping itself around your finger, you'll see they have amazing grip, and their legs are pretty sharp.

[bronck83]

So in theory he should be able to get himself out....assuming he's back there & didn't crawl out of the tank and under the couch or something?

[envy]

more than likely he's hiding in your rocks somewhere i have two and they always hide in the rocks good hiders. they are good with hair algae and i think the name is bubble algae

[tg1119]

I have one and never see him in the day but if I look at night with a flash light he usually makes an appearance. Also, when I shine the light over his head or off to the sides he will stand up and grab stuff out of the water column with his pincher's, its pretty funny looking.

[SA-DSM]

I only see mine during feeding. Feed your tank and see if yours come out.

[brewercm]

I rarely see mine out, but every so often I catch him out nipping on whatever algae it can find.

[alton]

When you start seeing a small area of your coraline algae disapearing you will know he is still in there. When your lights go out, place a small amount of mysis shrimp in a net and put it in your tank and leave it there for a while and he will crawl out. Sorry not my favorite crab, when they run out of bad algae they start on good algae.

[bronck83]

what is a good crab for a small tank that won't hide 24/7?

[alton]

Scarlets, they don't kill each other like the blue legs