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So whats eating my Shrimp


AquaJohn

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Ok I blamed my large mystery wrass he was removed I added more pepermint shrimp and a cleaner they all disapeared in a few days. My file fish was the next one banished to the sump becuase I saw him go after them .

I am now down to a cheveron tang a shole tang <both added after the shrimp started to disapear so its not them> a sand sifting gobie a copperband, a brittle star tons of small blue leg vrabs and var snails

SO WHATS eating my shrimp lol :) I have never seen any other large crabs ect

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Well I do wish you would get some more shrimp, we have been loving the shrimp kabobs on the grill :P

Have you looked at the tank at night with a red lens to see if you can find any nocturnal creature that might be getting them?

How long were the old ones allowed to be in before they all disappeared?

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I added two peppermint shrimp to my tank and they immediately disappeared. Three years later I found them while disassembling my tank., They had growtn about 4 fold in that time but I hadn't seem them once in three years. They're largely nocturnal.

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LOL I recently added some snails to my tank and one of them immediately burrowed in the sand. When my ammonia levels went up a hair a few days later and I hadn't seen him again I thought he had died and spent half a hour slowly sifting through sand till I found him. Pulled him out, he was moving so I put him back in and haven't seen him in 5 days now LOL.

Edited by gibs
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Well the last batch was 10 peperments and they all seem to end up in my center pc rock its full of crannys. And afer a week or so I could find 6 and then slowly it was 3 then non lol. The brittle star lives in the same rock

His arms stick out of it like some deep sea monster in the morning when I look with a flash light. Thats why I suspect him but most things say they eat dead stuff and crud.

The shrimp would come out when I feed the tank so I am fairly sure they are all gone.

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I can assure you it isn't bristle worms. I have about 20 bristle worms living in the bottom of my corner overflow and one of my peppermint shrimp ended up in the overflow with them. I thought he was a gonner because I could not catch him. He stayed in my overflow, on the bottom with those bristle worms crawling all around him for over a week. I finally caught him and now he is staying out of the overflow.

My guess is the brittle star. When I first started my tank I was loosing shrimp until I banished my black brittle star to the sump. Now I don't just suddenly loose my shrimp. I'd catch him next.

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A brittle star would not be at the top of my list but I wouldn't rule it out. If you try again you might try a different supplier as the disapperences may not have anything to do with predation in your tank.

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I have used rca, reefs2go, and one other online place I cant recall I was not happy with them so I banished them from memory lol smile.png or mabey its CRS. If they are just hidden one day I will be able to host a party with home grown shrimp for the barbie.

Ya the only thing that makes me think it might be the star is he is in the same rock they all seem to go to and its not a small tank so duno why they all like that spot other than it has multiple caves in it

this is a REALLY REALLY old shot but the only one I could find probly 2 years old. the rock is about 18 in long

DSC01398.jpg

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If they are just hidden one day I will be able to host a party with home grown shrimp for the barbie.

They may be off on some covert mission battling aiptasia in your tank! That would not be the way to welcome your little vets home.

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Brittle stars are known fish hunters and I wouldn't put it past one to grab a shrimp if it had the opportunity. However, I doubt he got them all. Your rock work would harbors tons of hidden nooks and I'm sure there are some still alive.

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ok more shrimpstrangenes for lak of better terms

I had a aptasia problem so added peperments to my rocks in my sump where there are no other critters that would be bigger than the shrimp. Well in order to clean the sump up, I do this 1 or 2 times a year. I pulled all the rock and plants to clean the crap out and of the 12 shrimp I had in there I found none I did not even find any remains lol. I think my tank has shrimpocide in it.

I have other inverts that are fine or I would think there is some copper sorce in there. I am at a total loss.

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Not all peppermints eat aiptasia. Plus even once the aiptasia was all gone, they would need another food source. 12 shrimp is a lot and could easily have run through the pods and whatever stray food drifted down there, and then starved, depending on how long ago you put them in the sump.

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I often wonder how old the shrimp are that are offered from most local fish stores. I don't think Peppermints have a very long life cycle. In my experience there are two methods for survival in nature (live a long time and have few offspring, or live a short time and have lots of offspring), and I think the peppermints fall into the second category. I would think with the numbers you mentioned though, that you would find at least one body. I know in my tank my long nose hawkfish kills my shrimp, but there is always a little left offer evidence. Good thing for my hawkfish that my daughter loves it.

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