Shrimp on the back of my milk carton

[BioMechanical]

Hey everybody. I've posted this before, but never really got a good answer. Kind of hoping that there might be some new ideas out there. I want to buy more shrimp but tired of losing money.

I have been buying and loosing shrimp and it's getting expensive. Wonder if anyone would know the reason... I have gone through 7 Peppermint and 3 Cleaner Shrimp in the past 8 months The disappearences aren't instant. The shrimp will be around for a while and then eventually they just disappear. The most I have had at once would be 3 Peppermint and 1 Cleaner which was probably 1 month and 1/2 ago. I now have 1 Peppermint left. The Cleaner's shell was found this past weekend. Saw it in the morning before going to a fragswap in St. Louis, came home and saw the shell on the filter's return hose. Thought it molted, shrimp is gone. Do mulitple shrimp fight? I'm thinking it might be my Vlamingi Tang - he's always hungry. I know I gotta get rid of him soon. He's just growing faster than my tank upgrade plans. Or could it be the Sally Lightfoot Crab? I guess I have also noticed that my hermit crab & snail population has thinned. Any input would be great. Here's a breakdown of my system:

Equipment:
55 Gallon
Canister Filter - Marineland C-360
Protein Skimmer - Hang On (Unknown name - EBay Special)
(2) Power Heads - MaxiJet 1200
Lighting - T5

Fish and Company:
(1) Vlamingi Tang
(3) Chromis
(2) Skunk Clowns
(1) Banggai Cardinal
(1) Firefish Goby
(1) Yellow Watchman Goby
(1) Tiger Pistol Shrimp
(1) Sally Lightfoot Crab
(1) Porcelain Crab
(1) Bubble Tip Anemone (Green)
Assorted Hermit Crabs - Scarlet, Blueleg, Hawaiian Zebra
Assorted Snails - Mexican Turbo, Nassarius, Astrea

[BioMechanical]

I did have one post about my pistol shrimp but my issues started way before. The pistol shrimp / watchman goby is my latest addition.

[PayasoDelMar]

Having multiple shrimp species never turned out well for me. The peppermints always seemed to be the most aggresive and killed a few coral banded shrimp i has as well. The Tang could infact be a predator if the shrimp are small enough, im not sure on the sally light foot but i could see that being an issue as well.


Oh and if you still have the peppermints shrimp in there, unless they are pretty big the pistol shrimp will most likely see them as potential prey.

Good Luck & happy reefing

[Konolua]

The Light Foot probably is not the issue, they aren't good at getting the snails that we tend to house in our reefs. It certainly could be the shrimp killer, but I would still guess no as they aren't that adept at catching bigger stuff.

Frankly, sounds like you may have another predator in the tank. You would be bound to have seen the Tang go after one of the shrimp in 8 months, so unless you HAVE seen it, that is probably not the case, especially with the cleaner shrimp. I am guessing a crab is the issue, most likely from the Xanthidae or Mihtrax families. Of course, this means nothing until you see something.

Leave a trap out (a glass or cup with a narrow(er) entrance and some shrimp or krill at the bottom). See what you find. You may be surprised. If the bottle/cup moves, then you may have a bigger something. If you have no bites in a couple of days, it may be in the wrong spot or the fish.

Give it a shot!!

[PayasoDelMar]

take a look at your tank a couple hours after the lights have gone off with a red light., that could help as well

[AJSTITAN14]

Shrimp are also sensitive to big fluctuations in salinity and water temperature. How tight are your tank parameters?

[Airwolf75]

When I was young someone told me Sally Lightfoot crabs are totally safe. Imagine my suprise when it killed some cleaner shrimp. So I vote for that one. It's just an opportunistic territorial crab who generally wins fights with shrimp.

[sTefaniA]

maybe you have a mantis? cause your snails and hermits are disappearing?
just a suggestion, but a possibility