Okay, Sam, now you've got me interested again :confused:

How big is your tank, how many emerald crabs do you have, and how bad was your valonia?

TIA.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...emerald+eating

a debate on what emeralds eat...

Thanks, teevee. I wouldn't like to buy him then have to tear down the tank just to give him to you for your sump :smile:

Beverly

I've had several episodes of bubble algae in my tanks over the years and have always purchased Mithrax (Emerald) crabs to get rid of them. They seem to go after the smaller bubbles, however. I've actually watched them attack a patch of bubble algae and have it completely consumed in hours. Once the bubble algae is completely gone from the tank, you don't see the crabs any more. I am assuming they either hide in the rock work or die of starvation. I give the Emeralds a two thumbs up.

Good Luck!

I have 6 emerald crabs and lots of valonia. I hand pick the valonia when it starts to annoy me.

Christy :)

I have 1 emerald crab in my 38 gallon tank now. I originally bought an emerald crab specifically to eat the patches of bubble algae that was growing in my new tank a year and a half ago and it did the job and ate my brown wafer algae as a bonus.

I bought a few more to help with hair algae problems and I've not had any algae problems now in over a year. They were mating in my tank often and I had captured lots of video of them releasing larvae. The tank is pretty barren of nuisance algae now and I only have 1 crab left. I assume the others died of starvation.

The only times I see brown wafer algae and bubble algae now are when I buy corals that already have them on the rock. Once I put the coral in my tank, the crab cleans out the algae within days or weeks. I haven't seen any of my emerald crabs eat coral yet.

Hi Andy,

I have what I believe is a brown bodied, red eyed mithrax in the tank already. He doesn't look at all, in colour anyway, like an emerald crab. This mithrax hasn't touched the valonia, either.

Here are photos of a similar mithrax that I pulled from our 42 hex with the valonia problem:

http://www.lostmymarblz.com/42gal-mithraxcrab.htm

I have two emeralds that ate all my valonia right quick. I have not seen a single one since I added them. The crabs now only come out at night and eat pretty much anything I put in the tank. I see them picking at the rock everywhere. They have been with me for almost 8 months now. I actually saw a tug of war for a silverside between a foot long bristle worm, a emerald crab, and a cleaner shrimp once.

Chris