Too many crabs?

lordroad

Large Fish
Sep 2, 2004
989
7
0
43
Shelby, NC
www.joshday.com
#1
I have 3 blue legged hermit crabs, and 2 similar small crabs with different colors (green and brown, but still striped). They try to yank the snails (2 astrea and 1 cereth) out of their shells and have shell fights amongst themselves. I also have an emerald crab.

Should I reduce the number to 2 or 3 blue leggeds?

They cleaned out my diatom algae in one day.
 

1979camaro

Ultimate Fish
Oct 22, 2002
5,862
2
0
42
San Ramon, CA
#3
lol...barb, not i know you aren't a lady ;)

as far as the crabs barb is right on...give them some shells to swap around and that should pacify them (hopefully). the emerald is probably not a good choice for the ten however
 

lordroad

Large Fish
Sep 2, 2004
989
7
0
43
Shelby, NC
www.joshday.com
#4
1979camaro said:
the emerald is probably not a good choice for the ten however
I checked out nano-reef.com before buying my crab stock, and they suggested emerald crabs, though only one for a 20 or a 10 gallon nano. Same with another site and nano blog I was reading. However, I looked into it some more after reading your suggestion, and I found they can be fish eaters, can get to 2.5 inches, and may eat green star polyps, which is one of the corals I hope to have.

From what I've read on the net about these guys, they get mixed reviews. Reef safe, sometimes not... I guess it depends on the crab and how well fed it is on algae. I had green bubble algae for a while, but the emerald crab took care of that.

What's been your experience with these guys, camaro?

My thinking now is to hold onto him until I get corals and then reevaluate.