emerald crabs

[motohead]

now lets say one has a 100 gallon or smaller tank.would putting more than one emerald crab in there be a wise thing to do?say if you order a cleaner pack from a website that has 5 emeralds in it.i thought they only got along if they were male/female pairs?

[cbianco]

When someone mentions emerald crab to me the first thing that comes to mind is "mixed results." Emerald crabs are opportunist. Many people have no problem with their emerald crabs, where others have had nothing but problems.

As long as there is enough by-product in your tank to keep the crab satisfied you should have no problem. If your tank is overly clean then the crab may go for other things to keep him satisfied.

If you want an emerald crab then I personally would say to add only one. The thing to keep in mind is that, there are other clean up crew members that can do the duties of an emerald crab. The only thing that emerald crabs specialize in is cleaning bubble algae. You may want to save the addition of an emerald crab only if you get bubble algae.

Good luck!

Christopher

[Mr_Cool]

I had two emerald crabs in a 55 gal. One of them died, I think. I can only find one of them now. But, I thought BOTH had died because I found a second carcus in the tank. Sure enough, the crab had just molted, and I found one of them about a week later. The first one MAY still be in there.

Anyway, the one I still have is doing great. I don't have any bubble algae, either. He likes to hang out underneath some mushrooms. I don't see why 5 in a 100 gallon would be a problem. But, I'm certainly no expert. Besides, why would they sell a cleaner pack with 5 included if it's not a good idea to have more than one in a tank?!

[pickle311]

I have 3 in a 130 and I haven't had any problems out of them. I almost feel like they were a waste of money though because I never see them.

[RADERBY]

I have a 125 and have at least 10 emrald crabs, i started out with 5 from a clean up crew but they have mated and have added to the total number. I actually got to watch a crab spreading what appeared to be eggs from its abdomen. Any way i do feed my tank well and i have never caught any crabs eating anything other than junk on my live rock, and hanging out under my shrooms.