A murder in my tank??

[good alex]

well i woke up this morning and went to my tank to see if i could spot my two new pepperment shrimp with the other two that i already had, i read that they do better in schools. So i find three of the shrimp together and look for another one, when i see him munching on one of my cleaner shrimp!! How can this be? I dident know that pepperment shimp dident like cleaners? so i thought it was his exoskeleton, but then i saw it wasent becase there were still some meat inside of the shrimp and his eyeballs were in place also. I still have one more cleaner shrimp and 4 pepperments, what should i do? buy more cleaners to even the teams a little more, move the cleaner shrimp until my aptista problem is done???? The cleaner shrimp were in great shape the night before, both of them in there cleaner station.
heres some pics

so you can see the parts were some of the meat were missing
any help is apreciated

 

[trainfever]

looks like exoskeleton to me.

 

[kevin34]

I can see what you mean by the meat of the shrimp being missing in parts. I would wait until you determine if the peppermint shimp ate the cleaner though because if that is a molt the cleaner is probably in hiding because they hide for a while after they molt.

 

[good alex]

its not, take a look at the first pic, see how the middle part of the shrimp is sorta see through thats where the meat is missing.

 

[darknes]

Yeah, from the pictures, it doesn't really look like a molt.
Generally, the peppermints shouldn't bother the cleaners. Maybe there was soemthing else that killed it, and the peppermints were just cleaning up.

 

[good alex]

Originally Posted by Darknes
Yeah, from the pictures, it doesn't really look like a molt.
Generally, the peppermints shouldn't bother the cleaners. Maybe there was soemthing else that killed it, and the peppermints were just cleaning up.

thats what i thought, but the pepperment shrimp were the newest addition to the tank, all four of them were put in within the last week, and before that there wasent anything new for a month, because im trying to save up money for some mh's, but when i saw some aptista i thought i get them to kill it before it became a big problem.
thats why i blame the pepperments, they come and cleaner goes

 

[darknes]

What size is the tank?

 

[good alex]

150

 

[darknes]

Yeah, I really doubt the peppermints would bother the cleaners in a 150. If the other one dies soon, then I'd be suspicious.

 

[good alex]

so do you guys think i should do with my cleanershrimp?

 

[autofreak44]

i have my vote on molt

 

[shrimpi]

maybe they are just hungry

I think this was a coincidence, pepp. shrimp are usually not hostile like that.

 

[good alex]

all i know is that my cleanershrimp was killed and it wasent a molt, the only thing that concerns me now is if the other cleaner will fall as a victim to the pepperment shrimp gang

 

[happy5446]

That looks like an awfully big peppermint shrimp from the comparison to the cleaner shrimp. Are we positive its a peppermint shrimp? I know how that sounds. please dont think I mean it that way. But, what is the circle on its mid section? The pic is dark too though. Do you have any other pics of that peppermint?

 

[good alex]

im positive its a pepperment shrimp and not a camelback shrimp (i know some people get those confused) but no offense taken. ill try and find one with the flashlight and take a pic of it, i kno i have a bad camera, but ill see what i can do.

 

[good alex]

ok so i found some pics i took earlier

i dont know why one of them is more see-through than the other one, but none the less there still pepperment shrimp

 

[good alex]

well heres an update, the shrimp are getting along (sorta) i think ill buy some more cleaner shrimp to even the sides up a little, the pepperments travel in a gang and boss my poor cleaner shrimp, guess ill have to go out and get him some "homies" lol

 

[sprang]

I doubt the peps ate the cleaner, but as you know in this hobby nothing is certain? Like that clam last week that snached the naso tang! Marine life is cool, but so unpredictable!

 

[aquaguy24]

man i was thinkin of gettin like 2 or 3 pepp shrimp but i have one cleaner shrimp and now im thinking twice about it...