Pseudoshrub Posted March 13, 2015 Share Posted March 13, 2015 Hey guys. I've had two peppermint shrimp and 3 yellow belly blue damsels in the my tank. Corals include: Hydnophora, blastomussa, candy cane, clove polyps, walking dendro, haddoni carpet anemone (1inch), elegance coral, favia, goniopora, symphillia, doughnut coral and mushrooms. One of my shrimps disappeared a couple days ago which I suspect was not to molt. Usually molting takes 2 days at most and they're back out in front. This time, one of them disappeared and I'm yet to find any signs of its remains (usually after molting they hide in the back and I can easily spot their antennae with a flash light. Today I noticed that the other shrimp is missing 2 legs which he wasn't yesterday. I've also witness the following in my tank: Pistol shrimps (x3) about 1-2 cm in length, Bristleworms (x2) which are about 2 or 3 inchs in length, Brittle stars (x2), some really small sea cucumbers (1-2cms) and a single little black crab (1-2cms). So I'm trying to figure out whats killing my shrimp. These aren't new shrimp so it can't be attributed to acclimation. Parameters are normal since last time a checked. Could it be my damsel that are tearing my shrimp's legs off? I've never seen them touch the shrimp before. Could it be the bristle worms (or perhaps fireworms)?. Any thoughts on this matter would be appreciated. on second thoughts, i'm thinking its like to be the crab now. The last I saw of him was a month ago, he's surely to have grown. Guess its time to tear the whole tank down and find the SOB. Link to comment
Thomas898 Posted March 13, 2015 Share Posted March 13, 2015 I'd bet it would be the crab. I've got pistols, brittle stars and lots of bristle worms too, crabs are the only thing that bother the pep shrimp. I accidentally introduced a huge one (or 2) the other week on some LR, it's kicked the pep shrimp out of it's usual cave, I couldn't find it for a few days, but it's alive, just on the other side of the tank hiding under a lot of rock. Maybe yours has just moved to a different spot to get away from the crab? My prick of a crab always comes out at night and sits on top of an SPS frag (do crabs eat SPS?), I've nearly caught it twice.. Kill the crab. Save a shrimp. Link to comment
Pseudoshrub Posted March 13, 2015 Author Share Posted March 13, 2015 I'm reading up on a Hyposalinity dips, hopefully that might help. Even if the peppermint is still alive, its time to take out crab. Hasta La Vista Crabby Link to comment
Thomas898 Posted March 13, 2015 Share Posted March 13, 2015 Let me know how you go.. I'm going to practice my skewering later tonight, I've given up on being reasonable with this crab. Hope your pep shrimp is ok! Link to comment
Benny314 Posted March 13, 2015 Share Posted March 13, 2015 Try a bottle or glass trap, glass trap will probably be best. Stand a tall glass leaning against your rock work, put a bit of bait (bit of prawn or something meaty) in the bottom of the glass and leave it over night. The crab (and probably any hermits you have) will drop into the glass trying to get the bait and not be able to climb up the smooth sides to get out. Try and position the trap where you know the crab hangs out, it'll find it quicker. After that its just a case of waiting. But its better than sitting up all night. Link to comment
Pseudoshrub Posted March 13, 2015 Author Share Posted March 13, 2015 Try a bottle or glass trap, glass trap will probably be best. Stand a tall glass leaning against your rock work, put a bit of bait (bit of prawn or something meaty) in the bottom of the glass and leave it over night. The crab (and probably any hermits you have) will drop into the glass trying to get the bait and not be able to climb up the smooth sides to get out. Try and position the trap where you know the crab hangs out, it'll find it quicker. After that its just a case of waiting. But its better than sitting up all night. the trap is set. lets hope it works, save me a lot of a work. Link to comment
Benny314 Posted March 13, 2015 Share Posted March 13, 2015 Fingers crossed. Might not get it first time, but I'm very lazy so can afford the wait lol. Link to comment
amphipod Posted March 19, 2015 Share Posted March 19, 2015 Remember think like a crab, they have extra sensory abilities they can feel other things in the water without seeing them so it can be hard to sneak up on them unless you go really slow, they have very good vision also don't let anybody tell you a crab with eyes has bad vision he (crab) is made very well and can spot you and make a plan of action pretty quickly, usually its habitual going to a close well used crevice and hiding his crabby self just out of reach, they are serious trolls like that which is why my crabs don't get normal live rock in their tank, just pebbles and algae. They also recognize food sources very quickly, they are kinda smart. Catch him by putting food in some corner spare crevice filled rock, once crabs is accustomed to that rock as food source/home pullout that rock and take him out the tank, I like crabs so they get a tank all to them selves. Link to comment
amphipod Posted March 19, 2015 Share Posted March 19, 2015 Also just saying the shrimp could have died of natural causes, been eaten by the shrimp the and other cuc members, damsel could have even played a part, then crabs took the remains to his house to finish probably most of the carcass for himself which is why remains were not found, other shrimp could have been attacked by the crab from the shrimp crossing his personal space, or since he already could know shrimp as a possible food source he tried to take advantage of the moment. Link to comment
Pseudoshrub Posted March 26, 2015 Author Share Posted March 26, 2015 I got bad news and I got good news and some bad news and then some good news... firstly my apologies for not responding sooner, got busy then distracted. So... I did the whole trap thing, here's the bad news... it didn't work Which meant I had to tear the whole tank down and do hyper-salinity dips for all my live rock and put my coral through an uncomfortable afternoon. And after all the lifting and carefully moving everything around I couldn't find the little bugger (the crab). In addition to that I could find no trace of the second peppermint shrimp so despite whatever was the cause of death it was definitely NOT molting and it was definitely eaten very cleanly. All that I could find that may have been the remains of the peppermint shrimp was a fragment of a exoskeleton which may or may not have belonged to it (its an old tank anything and everything has been in there). As I was about to do another salt dip just to make sure I didn't miss anything (At this point I had recovered a fireworm/bristleworm and a pistol shrimp) I ran my fingers through the sand and here's the good news. I found the crab! the bleached white carapace of the crab.... :*D Consequently this is also the bad news. It meant that the crab had been dead... for a while... and the culprit is still on the loose. The plot thickens would you say? So who did kill Mrs Peppermint shrimp that faithful afternoon? Who would commit such a heinous crime? And who killed crabby the crabster and left him sleeping with fishes? Questions just lead to more questions. My first suspect was Tony PistolShrimp seeing as he was armed and dangerous and after hours of intimidating him at baster-point "I ain't telling Nobody Nothin'" was all I got. Curious too because I could find no trace of his buddies Clickity Rick and Pistol Pew-Pew Pete (I recall having 3 Pistolshrimps). Ahem... I'm getting carried away. Where was I? Next, I move on to the bristle worm that I came out with the Salt Dip and after much deliberating and internet searching and matching pictures and reading forums I concluded that they may be fireworms. Better safe than sorry. Later on I found another two aggravating my Goniopora so I decided to take them all out of the tank. Its not very clear with the white background, but they do have very pronounced bristles. If anyone can tell what they are I'd be very happy to hear it. Regardless they now sit a bucket, I don't know if I should flush them or let them be... in their bucket. I've since also removed the three yellow belly blue damsels from the tank and traded them in for a Torch Coral and a Yellow Clown Goby. Both are a lot more relaxing and pleasing to watch then the tense stand off between the good, the bad and the ugly Damsels that was my tank a week earlier. I'm afraid we will never know who took Mrs Peppermint Shrimp and mortally wounded Mr Peppermint Shrimp taking two of his six legs. He has a bit of trouble climbing around because one side only has one leg so he needs to wedge himself between rocks to be able to climb. As for Tony Pistolshrimp? I was gonna leave him to rot in the bucket with the fireworms, but I felt sorry for the guy, its not his fault he was born into his socio-economic background and with the genetics which forged his nature. No way was I going to put him back in the tank so I put him in a jar with his own liverock and livesand. I plan to do water changes whenever I do water changes from the main tank. Humane? I dunno it was this or the flush. He now spends his days sitting by himself on my desk, telling nobody nothin'. Link to comment
Haberdashery Posted March 26, 2015 Share Posted March 26, 2015 This is probably the most entertaining thing ive ever read Link to comment
CronicReefer Posted March 26, 2015 Share Posted March 26, 2015 Agreed, that story was hilarious. Link to comment
porkchop-rob Posted March 26, 2015 Share Posted March 26, 2015 Pseudo....you must write for a living....that's very entertaining stuff Link to comment
HVani Posted March 26, 2015 Share Posted March 26, 2015 Those are just plain bristle worms, nothing to worry about. Link to comment
amphipod Posted March 27, 2015 Share Posted March 27, 2015 I think the isolation tank with the pistol and fireworms is a most humane thing to do. Also since the creatures are quite fun to keep why kill them. In all truth fireworms are very nice scavengers but won't sacrifice the opportunity to eat sick and dying corals. The pistol could have cannibalized his friends and attacked the shrimp. Link to comment
Sancho Posted March 27, 2015 Share Posted March 27, 2015 Same thing going on in my tank. The only thing that has died has been my peppermint shrimp first one I had for over a year and the second one went mia a few days ago. Vanished no trace I am thinking its the bristol worms. As my tank is crab free. Link to comment
Revenant Posted March 27, 2015 Share Posted March 27, 2015 Entertaining story. However, with corals in your tank you are far better off with those POS coral eating Peppermint shrimp being eaten. Peppermint shrimp ARE NOT reef safe. Spread the word. Link to comment
Pseudoshrub Posted March 28, 2015 Author Share Posted March 28, 2015 Pseudo....you must write for a living....that's very entertaining stuff Haha thank you, not a writer (although I wish), mostly just gangster movies and westerns. Entertaining story. However, with corals in your tank you are far better off with those POS coral eating Peppermint shrimp being eaten. Peppermint shrimp ARE NOT reef safe. Spread the word. Forgive my ignorance, whats POS coral? and How are Peppermint shrimp not safe? Link to comment
ndrobey Posted March 28, 2015 Share Posted March 28, 2015 Why not take the pistol shrimp to the LFS? Link to comment
michaelrzachmann Posted March 28, 2015 Share Posted March 28, 2015 colonel mustard.... with the lead pipe... in the conservatory Link to comment
amphipod Posted March 28, 2015 Share Posted March 28, 2015 Haha thank you, not a writer (although I wish), mostly just gangster movies and westerns. Forgive my ignorance, whats POS coral? and How are Peppermint shrimp not safe? he means piece of **** peppermint shrimp, because some have issues with them tearing up some corals, especially when they (shrimp) are starving.You make movies? Link to comment
Pseudoshrub Posted March 28, 2015 Author Share Posted March 28, 2015 Why not take the pistol shrimp to the LFS? From what I gather from the observations and what I can find on the net, these are NOT the variety that pair with gobies, grow very big, are ornamental or seen in the tank for that matter because they hide in the rock never come out. Some arbitrary Links: http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/282490-murdering-pistols/ http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/208851-shrimp-id/#entry2425157 http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/191182-mated-pair-of-banded-pistol-shrimp/#entry2147159 http://www.wetwebmedia.com/alphidf.htm http://www.marineaquariumsa.com/invertebrates/16195-pistol-shrimp-id.html I'm pretty sure that my LFS will toss it down the sink. colonel mustard.... with the lead pipe... in the conservatory Lol Cluedo he means piece of **** peppermint shrimp, because some have issues with them tearing up some corals, especially when they (shrimp) are starving. You make movies? Ahhh, I see I see. Well maybe the Pistol Shrimp did me a service by taking out of my Peppermint shrimp. But still, they were a mated pair in addition to that they're not cheap in my area. I watch movies haha Link to comment
metrokat Posted March 28, 2015 Share Posted March 28, 2015 The b/w striped shrimp does not pair with gobies. Alpheus Parvirostris And yeah that first link you posted is my thread. Link to comment
amphipod Posted March 29, 2015 Share Posted March 29, 2015 Pistol shrimp are cool and its nice that you don't kill him unmercifully like many do Link to comment
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