Harlequin Shrimp!

[brandolando4]

Hello,

 

I got home today and my harlequin was dead and being eaten by my hermits. He has been eating fine for the past two weeks. Yesterday he left his usual place and was exploring.

 

 

Could the hermits have killed him? I don't think he was starving there were two starfishs in the tank and he was eating the leg of a third. My skunk cleaner shrimp is fine all my Zoas and my anemone is fine.

[Angel<3Nanos]

Your hermits did not kill him. They were just cleaning after him. Make sure it's not a molt. If it is, your harlequin could be hiding.

[brandolando4]

Pretty positive it's dead, it looks meaty. Any other ideas what could have killed him.

[Fnard]

How have you been feeding him? I see that you said there were 2 starfish and a 3rd that was being eaten. Depending on the size of tank, this could severely affect your water quality. All inverts are sensitive to ammonia and nitrates.

[brandolando4]

There was half a leg of a starfish I got from work that he has been eating for the past two weeks, and two baby Hawaiian linkias in there crawling around. The water chemistry is good, I tested. And all my zoas, cleaner shrimp, and the h malu anemone is fine.

[Fnard]

So what is good? Have you tested for iodine? And I personally wouldn't be keeping a limb in the tank for 2 weeks. That will lead to bad stuff. How big of a tank? How old? Just trying to gather some info. It could just be it died. Things happen.

[brandolando4]

5 gallon Eco pico set up for over a year. I do a water change (20-30%) with reef crystals every week. Water params are all zero. I didn't test my ph I will when I get home. I was told to take the limb out after it started falling apart (should I take it out sooner?) no I haven't tested iodine.

[clownfitch]

^{In my experience the skunk cleaners prefer being the only type of shrimp in the tank. They will (I have had one kill a couple of peppermints) kill off smaller competitors.}

[Mariaface]

5 gallon Eco pico set up for over a year. I do a water change (20-30%) with reef crystals every week. Water params are all zero. I didn't test my ph I will when I get home. I was told to take the limb out after it started falling apart (should I take it out sooner?) no I haven't tested iodine.

 

You really shouldn't leave food in the tank for longer than an hour or two at a time. It's in a hot, wet environment, and it'll start to degrade faster than you can see (as well as culture bacteria/fungus). Did you test for ammonia? It could've succumbed to any number of issues, and the hermits are opportunistic feeders so they won't say no to a fresh corpse.

 

Why leave a limb in there for so long? Wouldn't it be better to freeze it and shave off pieces to feed one at a time?

[brandolando4]

The limb was still alive when I put it in the tank, and I was told by someone to leave it in until it starts to degrade and white pebbles form underneath it. So that what I did.

[patback]

You really shouldn't leave food in the tank for longer than an hour or two at a time. It's in a hot, wet environment, and it'll start to degrade faster than you can see (as well as culture bacteria/fungus). Did you test for ammonia? It could've succumbed to any number of issues, and the hermits are opportunistic feeders so they won't say no to a fresh corpse.

 

Why leave a limb in there for so long? Wouldn't it be better to freeze it and shave off pieces to feed one at a time?

harlequins wont eat anything but live starfish, you can not freeze them. was the leg still alive when you found the harlequin dead? if it isnt a molt, my guess is new(?), sick shrimp, or the other shrimp picked it off.

 

2 weeks is a VERY long time for even a small harlequin to eat even a large leg. usually within 5 days it should be completely gone.

[Mariaface]

harlequins wont eat anything but live starfish, you can not freeze them. was the leg still alive when you found the harlequin dead? if it isnt a molt, my guess is new(?), sick shrimp, or the other shrimp picked it off.

 

2 weeks is a VERY long time for even a small harlequin to eat even a large leg. usually within 5 days it should be completely gone.

Ah, so no training then. Huh, is it possible the leg was large enough to regenerate and live even through being picked at all day? Two weeks is a long time.