emerald crab turning white

[Jason]

I have had an emerald crab in my tank for about 4 months, and for the last few weeks he his carapace has been slowly turning white. It gets a variety of food, i see it eat and move around quite a bit, and all of my other inverts (hermits, peanut worms, and snails) are healthy. Ammonia and nitrites are at 0 and nitrates stay between 5-10 ppm. Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks,
Jason

[Wrassman]

Hey Jason,

Do you have any algae in you tank? The natural food of Emerald Crabs (Mithrax sp.) is algae, and that is what gives their bodies that nice green color. If they do not have enough algae to eat, they beging to lose that color. That does not mean that they are necessarily unhealthy. Just that they aren't getting enough of their natural diet.

If you don't have much algae in your tank, you could get some Seaweed Selects at your LFS, it is dried seaweed, pressed out in sheets. Just get a quarter of a sheet, get it wet so that it is pliable, then put it partially under a rock or something. I'm certain that your crab will TEAR IT UP.

HTH

[karlas]

i have an emerald crab and i see him from time to time the last time he looked a little white also. he seems to eat the corraline alge i can tell where hes been hangin out there will be a lot of scrapes in the rock. but hopefully hes still workin on the bubble alge i have he was doin a good job. but still turnin a bit white. could ;be food i thought also maby it was going to molt its shell soon that could be a possibility also

[thehand]

wrong thread sorry,, new to this