Mysterious Purple Emerald Crab?!

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bigleisch

Registered Member
Dec 9, 2006
1
0
0
Hey guys/girls,

I've been wondering about this crab for the last month. I have a 20 gallon SW reef tank that is supposed to be my hospital tank. Now its my "dump whatever i find in the gulf" tank. Just last month, what looks to be an adult purple emerald crab comes outta nowhere. Haven't had emerald crabs (green) in years and I haven't added anything to this tank since mid-summer 2010.

The tank is over 5 years dirty, err i mean old. Since everything but 1 fish died during a power outage 2 years ago, I only add wild baby fish (but also some soft corals and plants all found while out in the Gulf of Mexico near Tarpon Springs, FL). Currently there are 2 damsels and some tiny fish from the island (no idea what they are) kelp, xenia, sea urchin, red mushrooms and other random soft coral. Live rock was purchased from stores (5+ yrs ago) as well as taken from the gulf.

No idea what its been eating and if i should do anything to help it out. Mainly I'm just curious as to what exactly it is, and any theories on how it got there? And why/how is it purple? Oh, and how do I get more of these puppies, I mean crabs!?

Thanks for any responses, looking forward to hearing from you.

Scuba Steve

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