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Snorkeler's Cube

Got 4 new emerald crabs (Mithrax crabs)

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In my war against Valonias I lost an important warrior some months ago, my lone Mithrax crab (known as emerald crab to most of you of the northern hemisphere). My supplier of that crab had moved out of business and I couldn't find an LFS that had them.

Well, two weeks ago I found a new guy from Rio de Janeiro who supplied them, at brasilreef.com forum!! Brazilian ones, red/pink and not green but of the same shape as the green ones (my original one was pink too), which he fishes/catches from Rio's coastal waters.

Valonias, get ready, we got some (hopefully hungry and not lazy) Carioca crabs to eat you now.

Here are the four of them when they arrived:


Then having first contact with some house Valonias, 2010 vintage reserve, hand-picked as a welcome gift just for their pleasure:


And finally eating some of those hand-picked specials:


They were added to the tank after lights went off (after the standard gradual mixing of shipping water with tank water, of course), and I hope they all survive the night and start eating up my Valonias and GHA. The smaller one might not make it if the others attack him, or if one of my large bold hermits decide to challenge it. I hope that doesn't happen.

With four in there I should see a gradual reduction of Valonias, I'll report progress or lack thereof as time goes by.

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Categories
New Additions , ‎ Algae

Comments

  1. melev's Avatar
    Good luck. Hope they like green stuff. With their coloration, I could see them eating something in a reddish diet.
  2. jonbear's Avatar
    Love Emerald Crabs. I am wondering how many is the right number. Why did you go from 1 to 4? I just have one red one in a 125 gallon and no Valonias yet to speak of.
  3. snorkeler's Avatar
    Jonbear: I wanted more than one because one didn't eat them up as fast as they reproduced in my tank. So I ordered 3. But the guy sent me a bonus... :-) .... well, I didn't complain, as I know these guys don't live for too long.

    Melev: Regarding the red if they eat my red bubble algae I'll be happy too, as I have a lot of those in the tank on some rocks... not as spread out as the green valonias, but annoying enough...