Peppermint Shrimp DISAPPEARED!!!

[DustinS85]

I have a 20 Gallon High tank (No corals yet). I had 2 Astrea Snails, 2 Clownfish, and 3 Peppermint Shrimp. I have been water changing, and what not, but noticed something odd. 2 of my 3 Peppermints are totally missing!!!! I only have 1 left, and I moved all the live rock and everything. I can't even find carcases. I had an issue a week ago with cyano bacteria, and left my lights off for a week. I don't know if they went missing then, or what?! Have you ever heard of shrimp just vanishing without a trace?!

[GilliganReef]

Ah they are very good at hiding. If you have a lot of rock work they will never come out unless at night or starving. Also if you do not have enough food for them, they will kill each other. Or when you had the lights out a fish might have ate them. All the Scenarios I could think of.

I know I added 3 peps to my DT 4 mos ago. 2 mos when I rearrnge my rock work I found all three. Since then I have only seen 1 in last couple weeks. Now I am hoping they are all fine and still hiding in the rock work.

[GilliganReef]

Originally Posted by DustinS85

Have you ever heard of shrimp just vanishing without a trace?!

If no Carcass then someone ate them.

[DustinS85]

Originally Posted by GilliganReef

Ah they are very good at hiding. If you have a lot of rock work they will never come out unless at night or starving.

No, there is not enough rock for them to hide. I assume the only other option is the 1 killed the other 2. The Clownfish are rather small right now, and I don't see them being capable of killing the peps.

[Jason S]

What is your filtration like? Is it possible they got sucked into a power head or into the filter? I have had several things disappear on me, and while some never show up again, I have seen some reappear later. I found a sea cucumber that I thought was gone for over six months once, and I have found things in the overflow on many occasions.

[DustinS85]

I found this in the tank

[DustinS85]

It looks like a feather and when the last shrimp goes near it it immediately disappears. Could this have killed the shrimps?

[DustinS85]

Better pic

[GilliganReef]

The aiptasia in the middle of the pic. No that would have not killed your Shrimp. Peps are good hiders they will pop back up. Even when had my one pep in my sump where I only had a few rocks. He was still very hard to find down there.

[DustinS85]

Originally Posted by GilliganReef

The aiptasia in the middle of the pic. No that would have not killed your Shrimp. Peps are good hiders they will pop back up. Even when had my one pep in my sump where I only had a few rocks. He was still very hard to find down there.

Do Aiptasia disappear when something touches it? The peppermint went by it and it immediately disappeared into the rock?

[GilliganReef]

Yes, they do. Thats why they are so hard to get rid of.

[Goldndoodle]

Any chance you've got a Mantis Shrimp that hitchhiked in with some rock? Do you ever hear clicking coming from your tank?

I had a Mantis Shrimp hitchhike in on some rock in my nanoCube. Over the course of a few months, I lost a Skunk Cleaner Shrimp, 2 Peppermint Shrimp, and an emerald crab - disappeared exactly like you're describing - never found remains.

I was kind of in denial about having a Mantis, didn't want to believe it, but I kept hearing clicking coming from the tank.

When I moved the rock from the the nanoCube to my new tank I dipped everything in between tanks. As soon as I put a big piece of rock in the dip, I heard the clicking coming from the dip bucket. It went nuts for about 5 minutes, then the dip killed it.

I'm not 100% sure the Mantis took down the 3 shrimp and crab - but like you I was at a lose to understand what happened to them - until I killed that ugly bastich in the dip.

[tzylak]

I got 2 peps several moths ago. Within a month only one remained. Never saw what happened to the other one. I presume that the CUC did their job.
One maintains the aiptasia just fine.
Note that pep will never eat all of them. They leave one or 2 to multiply for future snacking. Now I have 2 beautiful aiptasias that I learned to appreciate.
Have fun!

[DustinS85]

Originally Posted by Goldndoodle

Any chance you've got a Mantis Shrimp that hitchhiked in with some rock? Do you ever hear clicking coming from your tank?

I had a Mantis Shrimp hitchhike in on some rock in my nanoCube. Over the course of a few months, I lost a Skunk Cleaner Shrimp, 2 Peppermint Shrimp, and an emerald crab - disappeared exactly like you're describing - never found remains.

I was kind of in denial about having a Mantis, didn't want to believe it, but I kept hearing clicking coming from the tank.

When I moved the rock from the the nanoCube to my new tank I dipped everything in between tanks. As soon as I put a big piece of rock in the dip, I heard the clicking coming from the dip bucket. It went nuts for about 5 minutes, then the dip killed it.

I'm not 100% sure the Mantis took down the 3 shrimp and crab - but like you I was at a lose to understand what happened to them - until I killed that ugly bastich in the dip.

I never heard clicking. Also; I don't have many rocks honestly. I have also moved them around quite a bit to boot. Unless the mantis is not even on the rocks, or near them; I don't see a mantis being the culprit. Also; for 2 months the shrimp were fine with the fish. All the sudden they went missing last week some time. Wouldn't a Mantis be violent, and eradicate them quicker than that?

[Salty Cracker]

My two snowflakes went to town on a peppermint shrimp I put in. Did not last a minute.

[stingeragent]

Over the last year I"ve come to realize that stuff will literally dissapear to nothing in a salty tank. I had a cleaner shrimp that looked like he had problems molting. He was laying in sand bed. I left him to see if he would make it out of it. The next day he was completely eaten. Not a trace. Just devoured.

[NemeKriss]

yesterday the level drastically dropped in my skimmer and when i turned it off the carcas of my peppermint came out of the intake of the pump. Still have no idea how he got down there.

[LauraBay]

Peppermints do have a way of just disappearing. They also have a tendency to jump out of the tank. Did you look around and under the tank? Is there any sort of overflow they could have gone down? It definitely could be gone but I wouldn't be surprised if they suddenly show up again.

Sidenote, I don't think that is an aptasia. Looks like a little feather duster. Wouldn't have anything to do with your peppermints disappearing. Would be more likely that your peppermints would eat it.

[DustinS85]

Originally Posted by LauraBay

Sidenote, I don't think that is an aptasia. Looks like a little feather duster. Wouldn't have anything to do with your peppermints disappearing. Would be more likely that your peppermints would eat it.

I think it's a feather too. When the pep come up to it it sucks into itself and essentially disappears.

[GilliganReef]

Originally Posted by stingeragent

Over the last year I"ve come to realize that stuff will literally dissapear to nothing in a salty tank. I had a cleaner shrimp that looked like he had problems molting. He was laying in sand bed. I left him to see if he would make it out of it. The next day he was completely eaten. Not a trace. Just devoured.

I had a cleaner for a year and a half. One night he molted, I saw the molt before bed. Woke up to the cleaner shrimp gone. Never to be seen again. I blamed it on my PJ Cardinal.