Commensual Emerald Crab?

[BigRedSpecial]

You can say a lot of things about crabs, but you can't say they aren't entertaining...

Two nights ago, I noticed my emerald crab standing in the middle of my palythoa rock, amongst the polyps. I watched him to make sure he wasn't eating or picking at the polyps, and sure enough, he wasn't... he wasn't eating anything! just sitting there, like an acro crab.

The next morning, he was still there; when the actinics came on, all the polyps opened up around him. When the daylight bulb came on, he went on his merry little way.

Last night, he did the same, and once again left this morning when the daylight bulb came on.

Has anyone else observed behavior like this from emerald(or other) crabs? what about other weird emerald behavior?

[Aquarist007]

nothing weird with this hobby

you are lucky--I have 3 emeralds in the tank---I haven't seen them in 6 months. I know they are very useful but it would be nice if there were as entertaining as yours.

[demonsp]

Mine like to go under some mushrooms i had. He maybe fine now but the bigger he gets the increased chance of him eating zoos. He is a with caution critter and ive learned to stay away from any reef safe-ish stock for better control. He is gone now my fancy star eat him and some cleaner shrimp. The star was another with caution and didnt seem to bother anyone and in one week i lost 2 crabs and 2 shrimp.

[BigRedSpecial]

Capn: I had one before that was less exciting than a featherduster. This guy seems like whenever he isn't doing something specifically to entertain me, he's resting in plain sight on top of the rocks. Lets just hope he doesn't turn into a monster!

[BigRedSpecial]

****.

10 minutes ago I checked to see if he would be spending another night in the paly colony, but he was climbing around the rock still.

Just then, 10 minutes after he was crawling around the rock, I looked again...

He's dead.



What the hell????

[Logzor]

Mine did the same thing with a small forest of kenya trees. It would climb up onto the tree day and night. I did not think much of this behavior at first, I just figured he liked the spot.

Several days after this behavior I noticed that he was dead near the kenya tree that he had been hanging on.

I still have one emerald crab in the tank that is doing just fine.

This sounds similar to what yours did.

[BigRedSpecial]

There is still hope! It may not be dead, it may simply be moulting. I assumed it was dead because I'm used to moulting shrimp and hermits, whereby the old shell is noticeably torn up; this shell looked immaculate(except for the lack of eyes) but on closer inspection it was split around the sides(like he squeezed out).

I haven't been able to find him, but then again, that's the whole idea.

[just dave]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11672349#post11672349 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by capn_hylinur
nothing weird with this hobby...

Watch a Pearlfish enter a sea cucumber via the cucumbers anus for a bite to eat. It may be normal and natural but it's still weird.:eek2:

[jamesnmandy]

yeah, same thing happened to me, when my emerald molted, i took it out thinking it was the dead crab, i am saying as in held it in my hand and looked at it and flushed it down the toilet and still was convinced it was the dead crab....only to find out it was a molt.....he hid for several days after molting and then one day, there was my crab!! nothing at all like shrimp molts

[BigRedSpecial]

I win!

It was a molt; he's running around again today, and has regrown a missing claw.

Lesson learned, now I know what a crab molt looks like.

[Canarygirl]

I have a hermit crab that climbs up a particular coral colony to sleep at the very top, every night the same thing....

[Aquarist007]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11677626#post11677626 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by BigRedSpecial
I win!

It was a molt; he's running around again today, and has regrown a missing claw.

Lesson learned, now I know what a crab molt looks like.
scares the heck out of you doesn't it---the shrimp also moult and their molt ends up in my korilias--that's scarry.:eek2:

[Aquarist007]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11673489#post11673489 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by just dave
Watch a Pearlfish enter a sea cucumber via the cucumbers anus for a bite to eat. It may be normal and natural but it's still weird.:eek2:

last night I watched a cleaner shrimp try to go right into the extended mouth of my rose anenome after I had fed the anenome a large chunk of raw shrimp:eek2: :lol:

[BigRedSpecial]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11678771#post11678771 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by capn_hylinur
scares the heck out of you doesn't it---the shrimp also moult and their molt ends up in my korilias--that's scarry.:eek2:

I'm used to seeing shrimp molt; that's what threw me off with this guy. You're right though, it sure looked like he was dead!

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11678796#post11678796 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by capn_hylinur
last night I watched a cleaner shrimp try to go right into the extended mouth of my rose anenome after I had fed the anenome a large chunk of raw shrimp:eek2: :lol:

The same palythoa colony that the crab has been sleeping in has eaten two peppermint shrimp on me. I'm not sure how the first one went down, but it caught the second one by the antenna; sucked it right into the polyp and the shrimp couldn't get out.

as an aside, it's crazy how much emerald crabs grow between molts! I've witnessed hundreds of molts of hermits and shrimp, and you can barely notice a difference in size... this guy has nearly doubled!