diff --git a/zebrad/src/components/mempool/crawler.rs b/zebrad/src/components/mempool/crawler.rs
index 6203e14ac..22b509a65 100644
--- a/zebrad/src/components/mempool/crawler.rs
+++ b/zebrad/src/components/mempool/crawler.rs
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
 
 use std::time::Duration;
 
-use futures::{stream, StreamExt, TryStreamExt};
+use futures::{stream::FuturesUnordered, StreamExt};
 use tokio::{sync::Mutex, task::JoinHandle, time::sleep};
 use tower::{timeout::Timeout, BoxError, Service, ServiceExt};
 
@@ -39,7 +39,7 @@ where
     S::Future: Send,
 {
     /// Spawn an asynchronous task to run the mempool crawler.
-    pub fn spawn(peer_set: S) -> JoinHandle<()> {
+    pub fn spawn(peer_set: S) -> JoinHandle<Result<(), BoxError>> {
         let crawler = Crawler {
             peer_set: Mutex::new(Timeout::new(peer_set, PEER_RESPONSE_TIMEOUT)),
         };
@@ -48,10 +48,10 @@ where
     }
 
     /// Periodically crawl peers for transactions to include in the mempool.
-    pub async fn run(self) {
+    pub async fn run(self) -> Result<(), BoxError> {
         loop {
             self.wait_until_enabled().await;
-            self.crawl_transactions().await;
+            self.crawl_transactions().await?;
             sleep(RATE_LIMIT_DELAY).await;
         }
     }
@@ -64,24 +64,35 @@ where
     /// Crawl peers for transactions.
     ///
     /// Concurrently request [`FANOUT`] peers for transactions to include in the mempool.
-    async fn crawl_transactions(&self) {
-        let requests = stream::repeat(Request::MempoolTransactionIds).take(FANOUT);
+    async fn crawl_transactions(&self) -> Result<(), BoxError> {
         let peer_set = self.peer_set.lock().await.clone();
 
         trace!("Crawling for mempool transactions");
 
-        peer_set
-            .call_all(requests)
-            .unordered()
-            .and_then(|response| self.handle_response(response))
-            // TODO: Reduce the log level of the errors (#2655).
-            .inspect_err(|error| info!("Failed to crawl peer for mempool transactions: {}", error))
-            .for_each(|_| async {})
-            .await;
+        let mut requests = FuturesUnordered::new();
+        // get readiness for one peer at a time, to avoid peer set contention
+        for _ in 0..FANOUT {
+            let mut peer_set = peer_set.clone();
+            // end the task on permanent peer set errors
+            let peer_set = peer_set.ready_and().await?;
+
+            requests.push(peer_set.call(Request::MempoolTransactionIds));
+        }
+
+        while let Some(result) = requests.next().await {
+            // log individual response errors
+            match result {
+                Ok(response) => self.handle_response(response).await,
+                // TODO: Reduce the log level of the errors (#2655).
+                Err(error) => info!("Failed to crawl peer for mempool transactions: {}", error),
+            }
+        }
+
+        Ok(())
     }
 
     /// Handle a peer's response to the crawler's request for transactions.
-    async fn handle_response(&self, response: Response) -> Result<(), BoxError> {
+    async fn handle_response(&self, response: Response) {
         let transaction_ids = match response {
             Response::TransactionIds(ids) => ids,
             _ => unreachable!("Peer set did not respond with transaction IDs to mempool crawler"),
@@ -92,8 +103,6 @@ where
             transaction_ids.len()
         );
 
-        // TODO: Download transactions and send them to the mempool (#2650)
-
-        Ok(())
+        // TODO: Send transaction IDs to the download and verify stream (#2650)
     }
 }