Had a real EXPENSIVE experience happen and thought id share it and get some feedback.

I ordered the 100 gallon Reef Clean Up Crew from "Flying Fish Express" 3 weeks ago. Its contents were : 4 Green Emerald Crabs, 2 Serpant Stars, 2 Black Brittle Stars, 20 Cerinth Snails, 1 Pink and Black Cucumber, 3 Tiger Cucumbers, 2 Red Linkia Stars

I have a 150 gallon tank. In the tank I had 1 Yellow Tang, 1 Purple tang, a Pair of Clowns, and 5 Green Chromis. 100 lbs of Live Sand, and 75 lbs of live rock. Anyways, its been 3 weeks and the Emerald Crabs have eaten all the stars, half the snails and chewed on the cucumbers. The cucumbers ended up doing the famous "cuke puke" and killed the fish. The Reef crew after shipping cost me $189.00, now all i have left is 1 leggless Red Starfish, a couple of snails and 4 fat-n-happy Emerald Crabs.

Dave

Are you sure it's the emerald crabs doing that much damage.  Could there be something else causung the damage.  I have two emerald crabs and have had no ill effect.  How old is the live rock?  Could there be a hitch hicker, that is new or just started coming out.

John Fletcher "ReefAquarist"

First question out of my mouth is how old is your tank?

Second question is: Did you have a bubble algae problem?

Third question is: What were these organisms going to eat?

Fourth question is: Have you asked for a refund from FFE?

Fifth question is: Would it have been helpful to ask this forum for comments before you purchased?

WOW, you guys are quick to relpy !!!! LOL..

The Rocks were in my 30 gallon that ive had for almost 3 years. And never had any problems. The 150 was used as a fish only tank (Had a Lion fish in it for 3 years, he was a foot and a half long when he died) I bought the Reef critters to mainly keep the rocks alge free and help clean the sand (hence the cukes) and the snails of course to help with the alge on the glass. At first I too questioned something other then the Emeralds, so a Night ops with a red light caugt them chowing down on the stars and cukes. I called FFE and sence they all made it to the tank alive it was out of there hands. The last couple of days I have spent time exploring this forum and site, wish I would have discovered it a couple of years ago...... 

They are your typical green emerald crabs. All 4 are are pretty good size. Bright green and I think I saw one with a really big smile on his face. I did have some bubble alge and they did an awesome job of clearing that.

I've got one emerald and I haven't seen him do anything but pick at algae.

Mark, I don't think mine has even noticed the bubble algae :(  I've had him for a couple months and he seems content to just pick at the rocks.

Then they were starving when you got them and couldn't find enough of their regular food so became opportunistic feeders, eating what ever they could find.

We would do well to always consider what food is found in our tanks and becareful not to add any organism that cannot be provided the proper type and amount of food.

People new to the hobby are continually telling me that their hermit crabs are eating their snails. This is because they have a new tank with very little algae, but they wanted to "do it right" so they bought their algae control because they heard that algae is a real problem. Anyway, you probably get the point.

BTW if you live near Salt Lake, you won't want to miss the meeting next Thursday where a very knowledgable person will be giving a presentation and answering questions about filtration.

Oh, I didn't mean you Jon. My last answer was for TANGO.

In Jon's case the way to think about it is that your bubble algae doesn't look as tasty as something else. Every person has different tastes and so it goes with crabs too!

Bubble algae is not that hard to remove. Try this: stick a pin or razor blade on the end of a stick and just go around poking or slicing the bubbles. The shell is sometimes enjoyed by Tangs. Eventually you will have smaller and smaller and fewer and fewer bubble algae.

Also remember that some people like the look of a green marble with a starfire image reflecting off it's surface. Especially kids. School kids that have come to my house on field trips always notice the "sailor's eye".

A small amount of bubble algae is ok, non reefers really like the look of it as mark said.  I have seen tanks completely overgrown with the stuff and that doesn't look good (IMO).

Put me in the crowd that overpopulates snails and crabs in the tank.  They're fun to watch.

Bubble is fairly easy to remove once is gets the size of a marble...just pick it off with your fingers :).

Never had a problem with an emerald...once had a sally that I was verrrry suspisious about.