Anyone heard of a Fire Shrimp Bully?

[smashrt]

we are in our 10th month now as new owners of a 46g bow front tank, and have run into multiple problems since the beginning, but we are really enjoying the hobby .. and the quick lessons we learned.lol Things were just starting to get a nice flow to them when our oldest fish in the tank our benggai cardinal started looking bad. we first noticed him just hanging out in the corner.. and also noticed he wasnt eating and breathing hard. we woke up the next morning to his fins all torn up, still breathing hard and not eating. Now hes got a small hemorrhage spot by his gill that looks like it might be infected. hes not doing well and im wondering what to do do about it.. i thought everyone else in the tank was doing well.. upon inspection.. i noticed our dragon goby now had a big chunk out of his fin too.. all the fish appear to get a long.. we watch at night to make sure everything looks ok we have 2 B. Cardinals, 2 clowns and a dragon goby... along with cleaner shrimp and a fire shrimp. We noticed that sometimes our fire shrimp lunges out at the other fish.. is it possible that the fire shrimp is causing this problem? I thought they were not they aggressive type... would that make any sense or do you think its something else? (the two cardinals dont fight, they hang out together mostly.. i dont know if they've paired.. or how to tell the difference between m and f)
Also what do i do about Twitch our Cardinal

 

[mrdc]

IMO, I don't think the fire shrimp is doing it. However, I have only had one and it was peaceful. I have had 10 or so cleaner shrimps and the only problems they caused were stealing food from corals.

 

[flower]

The fire shrimp is lunging to try to get close enough to the fish to clean up the wounds, that’s what they do. You do have a bully from the sounds of it. What else is in the tank…I’m guessing you have a damsel or two.

 

[andrewjardin]

This happened to me as well, but with my Cleaner shrimp. Things seemed to be going fine for the first month, than out of nowhere my fish started to get ripped fins and torn skin. Upon further inspection I witnessed my cleaner shrimp doing these things to my fish to the point of killing them before I could get him back to my lfs. He was fine on his own but once a fish was introduced he got agressive. The worst loss was my 3 clownfish all in one day, he looked like he was cleaning them, reached into their gill covers, than they just died, almost instantly! It was so upsetting, I just kept him on his own until he died. IMO if you think it's causing the problems, you should take it back to your LFS.

 

[flower]

Originally Posted by andrewjardin
http:///forum/post/3273479
This happened to me as well, but with my Cleaner shrimp. Things seemed to be going fine for the first month, than out of nowhere my fish started to get ripped fins and torn skin. Upon further inspection I witnessed my cleaner shrimp doing these things to my fish to the point of killing them before I could get him back to my lfs. He was fine on his own but once a fish was introduced he got agressive. The worst loss was my 3 clownfish all in one day, he looked like he was cleaning them, reached into their gill covers, than they just died, almost instantly! It was so upsetting, I just kept him on his own until he died. IMO if you think it's causing the problems, you should take it back to your LFS.

No way did the cleaner shrimp kill your fish. The fish may have been injured t the point of daeth before you saw what you did and assumed the shrimp was to blame.

 

[smashrt]

we have two cardinals, two clownfish, and one dragon goby. Ive seen our cleaner shrimp try to clean our old flame angel.. and it definately looks more aggressive when our fire shrimp lunges out.. its usually when we are feeding them and the other fish get too close to the fire shrimps food.
ive kept a close eye at night to see whats going on.. and the only thing i notice is the fire shrimp. hes very territorial about his cave..he doesnt like when the other fish come around it.

 

[andrewjardin]

Originally Posted by Flower
http:///forum/post/3273483

No way did the cleaner shrimp kill your fish. The fish may have been injured t the point of daeth before you saw what you did and assumed the shrimp was to blame.
Nope, it was definantly the shrimp. The clowns had all been doing great beforehand, than one day out of nowhere, the quiet one struck out! I never expected it and I witnessed the massacre too. It was very sad, and I miss my little clownfishes