[feg47]

Hello,
I'm new and I been reading for some time now to learn from all of you. I'm in the process of cycling my 75 gal. tank for six weeks now with two chromes and everything looks OK so far. Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate "0" PH 8.00 Salinity 1.026 temp 78 with a fluval 405 two power heads and a hang on skimer working fine.
I have a Little big more than 50 lbs of live rock and almost two inches of live sand or 60 lbs.
I just add to the tank this last weekend two sand sifting start fish some snails two red legs H. Crabs and I just happen to get two little regular crab. one is green and the other one is a light brown which the only thing they both do is move all over the rocks a bring to their little mouth anything the seem to get with their claws. thy are both very small.
Now, as I have read in this forum for quiet sometime now, I have noticed that nobody motions or seem to carry crabs on their tank but the Hermits, peppermint or the cleaning shrimp.
Have I made a mistake? are these two little creatures good for anything ?
I'm planning to introduce a bubble tip anemone this weekend but I'm not sure if it's ok.
Fernando

[barbra]

It sounds like one of your crabs is an Emerald, but without a pic it's hard to say for sure. The other one could be any number of species. There is a good crab ID page here:
Crab Hitch Hikers

Crabs are cute when they are little, with the grimmace on all the time, and they can be very entertaining to watch. They do a great job at turning the sandbed, especially around the rocks, and they content themselves on scraps of food and algea. The problem is that most of them don't stay small and harmless. As they get bigger their attitudes and their appetites follow suit. One day everybody's kid brother has turned into Atilla the Hun.

They can plow down a patch of Zoos in no time at all. They will catch smaller fish when they get the chance, usually at night, and there won't even be a fin left when you wake up in the morning. I trap them by the time the carapace is 1" across and remove them.

I had one smart feller who evaded me for a couple of months. I had nearly trapped him twice and he was getting the hang of things. He had developed serious trust issues and whenever I was around he would hide. I had to resort to stabbing him with a shishkebob skewer. It was awful, but it was going to be him or me at that point. It just seems like even the ones that are "reef safe" eventually go bad.

[glampka]

Your green one is possibly an emerald crab. They are supposed to eat bubble algae but when I had one I never saw that happen. Not sure about the brown crab. Most of the time they will eat anything & everything on the bottom. However, if there's not enough food for them they have been known to attack fish. When they're small they shouldn't be a problem. When they start growing they could become one.

[feg47]

Thanks for your comments, I think that I should start my fishing plan to get them out of the tank, even though that i had spend some time looking at them and I have to admit that it is a good therapy after a days work...