Do Emerald Crabs eat Coraline?

[nattydread]

This is the second attempt i've made at using Emerald Crabs to control buble algae. The algae is as prolific as ever, and my rocks have been picked clean of coraline.

I notice this the first time I tried out an emerald, They seem to pick endlessly at the rocks/coraline.

Whats your experience?

[KyleO]

My experience is that my Emerald crabs won't eat coraline or bubble algae.

They do pick at the rocks endlessly (as we expect them to) and will scour rocks of just about everything else. They will also sometimes accept small bits of fish and shell-fish but mostly low cropped algae.

[jab502]

If corraline has stopped growing on your rocks I would say something is going on outside of the emerald crab. I don't think they eat corraline and even if they did there is no way a few of them could strip your rocks clean.