Emerald crabs

[FishyReef]

I got the tongs at Petsmart too Angie. Mono, I'd recommend that you stop feeding flake food - it just isn't as nutritious and tends to cause nitrate and phosphate issues - as you are experiencing, it can cause a mess in your tank and overflow! Frozen foods are better - formula one, marine cusine, emerald entree, mysis, blood worms, etc. - I feed my fish a combo of of the first three, rotating them over the course of a week. WIth 6 fish in my tank and lots of inverts, I feed 1 cube every other day. You can buy the frozen foods at petsmart (or similar stores), it isn't expensive, and will last awhile. For your corals, and your fish, I would recommend dissolving half a cube to a cube of food (depending on how many fish you have) in a little cup of tank water and then using a turkey baster (you can get them at any grocery store for a few bucks) to squirt the water with the food back into the tank. For my corals, I just aim some on their direction and they extend their polyps and get little pieces from the water column. It is only my emerald crab that doesn't seem to be able to grab stuff as it floats by, which is why I've resorted to target feeding with an extra cube of formula one any time I actually see him picking at a coral. I figure he is hungry, target feed, he goes crazy for the food, and then its usually a good week or so before I see him doing it again. I should also say that I do watch him pick algae from between my coral polyps, so I really watch first to make sure he is in fact trying to pick off part of the coral rather than algae before I race off to get a cube of food for him!

Anyhow, I think switching from flake and pellet food will help with your overflow box, as will siphoning out what's accumulated in it when you do water changes, and rinsing it out periodically. Also, do you run a protein skimmer? If so, this should help pull some of the uneaten flakes out of your water column as well. Good luck!

 

[mono19]

Fishy,

Thanks for the help. I have been using cubes and they are a pretty great food source for sure! I've been feeding every day is that too much? And I've just been taking a cube and dissolving it in the water holding it with my fingertips. The fish love it and the inverts come from everywhere! I've got a mix of Zombie snails, turbos, some smaller snail then hermit crabs and the emeralds. It's cool watching the zombie snails come out of the sand.

I've also been feeding Rodi Feast every other day and the corals get oysterfeast. Seems to be working pretty good. But I will try your idea, sounds like it would work pretty great too. The only reason I have been doing pellet and flake food still is cause that's what my clown, firefish and clown goby and emerald were eating in my ten gallon before I moved them over. I have been trying to ween them off it by not feeding as much anymore and more of the cubes.

 

[mono19]

I am running a protein skimmer, that stuff smell nasty! Also do a water change every week.

 

[FishyReef]

Yeah, I think you can stop of the pellets and flakes - the clown, firefish, and goby will do just fine on the frozen and should switch over without any problem. How many fish / what types of fish do you have in the tank now besides those?

 

[mono19]

Ok I will stop then. I wonder if holding a part of a cube down at the bottom of the tank would help feed all the inverts and crabs? I've got two clowns, orange and black. I had 4 chromis, but now only 2, the smaller ones disappeared, the firefish goby, and a citris clown goby. Really fun fish...I want a sailfin tang sooooooo bad lol...but I know it's probably not a good idea..

 

[FishyReef]

With the fish you have, you should be just fine feeding every other day. If you target feed your emerald crab by holding the cube down by him when you see him, then yes the rest of your CUC will come and pick up the leftovers! I haven't tried the foods you mentioned so don't know how quickly they will dissolve, but you could see how it works with the tongs. If they dissolve too quickly, then check out formula 1. I'd also get the turkey baster when you can, it will be an easier way to target feed your corals when you get to that stage! And yeah, as far as the sailfin is concerned, it wouldn't be a good idea - they need a 180g tank. In fact I don't believe there are any tangs that would do okay in your tank, but you could probably add a dwarf angel, which would put you at your stocking limit as far as fish go!

 

[mono19]

Ok sweet, I will go and get those things when I get paid this week...went on a cruise to cali, spent all my money. ha Could I possibly do a small sailfin and keep it till it gets to big and then just return it or sell it? or is it just a no no all around? The tank looks so empty with all the little corals still growing...I need some new corals too. haha.. addicting hobby right here!

 

[FishyReef]

Yeah, sorry the sailfin is a no all around. Its just never a good idea to buy something with the intention of moving it when it gets bigger. Its an expensive hobby and upgrading is expensive. We all have great intentions but you never know where your life is going to be when the time to upgrade is needed. And fish grow much faster than we plan. And tangs need a lot of swimming room - your tank just won't provide that no matter how small the fish is. Believe me, all of us have fish we want but can't have because our tanks won't provide for their needs. I'd love a pink tailed triggerfish, but my tank is too small for one. So I just love them from afar and some day if I have money and space to upgrade I will!

As far as the new stuff to buy - the turkey baster should be under $5, the tongs around $15-20 (if I recall right), and formula one is around $7-8. Keep us posted!

 

[mono19]

Yeah ain't that the truth. There are some gorgeous fish out there, and we want them all ha. Sweet well I will keep everyone updated, and if I ever figure out how to put pics on here I will have to put some up.

 

[mono19]

I figured I would give everyone a quick update..I tried the feeding method I was given. It works pretty dang good! Also picked up a new fish, a Yellow Wrasse. He/she is pretty sweet! It was fun watching it swim around it's new home. It disappeared when the lights went out and I thought I lost it somewhere. So I did some more research and found out that they burrow into the sand at night to go to sleep. I freaking love this fish now! That's way cool.

 

[2XAl]

i have to say one of my favorite parts of this hobby is how there are soo many stocking options that do such cool stuff!

 

[sen5241b]

My emerald poked the hell out of a perfectly healthy Lobo until the lobo detached from its base rock, floated away and died.

 

[little_fish]

In a funny, but totally unrelated emerald crab story...

I moved my tank today and when I was pulling out the last few rocks I finally grabbed the huge emerald crab that lives in the back. My boyfriend is terrified of these guys and so I chased my boyfriend around the apartment while he screamed like a girl with the crab in my hands. While doing this the crab was raising his claws in a defensive posture. It was hilarious!

 

[FishyReef]

In a funny, but totally unrelated emerald crab story...

I moved my tank today and when I was pulling out the last few rocks I finally grabbed the huge emerald crab that lives in the back. My boyfriend is terrified of these guys and so I chased my boyfriend around the apartment while he screamed like a girl with the crab in my hands. While doing this the crab was raising his claws in a defensive posture. It was hilarious!

Awesome! You so should have videoed that with your phone and posted it! LOL

 

[little_fish]

Oh no, I wasnt looking so great myself

 

[snyderju]

I'm not a big fan of any crabs. I had some blue legs and a scarlet but all they did was walk over my zoas and make them close up. So annoying to watch so I got frustrated and gave them all to the LFS. I only have 2 tiny ones left in my refugium now. They help keep it clean in there and they can't get to any of my corals. I've heard a lot of horror stories about those emeralds, they just seem like to big of a bother to me.

 

[ErinCahir]

In a funny, but totally unrelated emerald crab story...

I moved my tank today and when I was pulling out the last few rocks I finally grabbed the huge emerald crab that lives in the back. My boyfriend is terrified of these guys and so I chased my boyfriend around the apartment while he screamed like a girl with the crab in my hands. While doing this the crab was raising his claws in a defensive posture. It was hilarious!

I can totally see Kody screaming... OMG... I'm dying.

 

[marcah]

the only cleaner crabs I like are scarlets, yeah things close up as they pass over it but I have never had one actually bother a thing in the tank and they are a fabulous cleaners..

 

[reefer82]

In a funny, but totally unrelated emerald crab story...

I moved my tank today and when I was pulling out the last few rocks I finally grabbed the huge emerald crab that lives in the back. My boyfriend is terrified of these guys and so I chased my boyfriend around the apartment while he screamed like a girl with the crab in my hands. While doing this the crab was raising his claws in a defensive posture. It was hilarious!

LMAO

I don't know how I'm gonna handle inverts. They are creepy and look like they bite or sting.

 

[mono19]

Just wanted to do a quick update! Tank is doing good and stocked! Now I'm just spending money on corals. Fish seem to be doing great! I noticed a couple days ago that some had white poop. I'm guess this could be a parasite? Will it go away on its own? Also my one orange clown fish has gone from being really active to always hanging out behind my overflow box where the two clownfish spend the night. He also is constantly opening and closing his mouth. The black clown is a lot more active, but you can tell he is worried. He goes up and checks on the other one every now and then, the orange one isn't sluggish he swims but stays behind the box.

What could be wrong with him?