Blood Smrimp Lost to Sally Lightfoot

[qpackard]

Last night, my one year old blood smrimp molted. I woke up this morning to my Sally Light Foot devouring that same shrimp. I have a 40 Gallon, 20 pounds of live sand, 30 lbs of Live Rock. Mushroom Corals, a cleaner shrimp, Coral beauty, small pecular clown, Mandarin Dragonet - Spotted, and a hippo tang. Also have 10 hermits, Nassarius Snail - Group of 10, 2 cleaner clams, 3 Scarlet Hermit Crab, one sand sifting cucumber, Tiger Tail Cucumber, Fighting Conch - Aquacultured, Queen Conch - Aquacultured, Serpent Starfish, Sally lightfood crab.
I am assuming the Sally Lightfood just went after the shrimp, as he has been healtht and good for almost a year now.
Any thoughts about the make up of the tank? Overstocked? I know the hippo will outgrow tank, got him when he was so small, and he has grown already since I have had him. So I am thinking about bringing him back, but he is so cool in the tank!
Thank you for your help.

 

[renogaw]

people are going to comment on how small your tank is and the lack of enough live rock to sustain a mandarin for a full, healthy life.

 

[mtennant]

Yea I think your tank is over.. I would take the Mandarin Dragonet out soon.. Hes cool and all and I understand why you got him hell I would too thay are so COOL!!!!! But thay die after a year or so... Need more then 75LB of LR to live... ***)

 

[qpackard]

Yeah, totally agree. I got him as a gift and he is REALLY cool! I have been adding Copepods to the tank quite frequently, but I have to admit I do not think he will last with the size of the tank. The tank is doing well, besides my blood shrimp getting eaten by my Sally Lightfoot. Have you ever seen/heard of a Sally Light foot killing a blood shrimp?

 

[renogaw]

sally's are crabs. they will eat whatever they can find. If it was hungry enough, a nice newly molted shrimp might have gone well with a side of detritus. try to give your crabs and shrimp for that matter a chunk of shrimp or clam or something meaty every couple days to keep them satisfied.
hopefully it was just munching the molt though.
on a side note, if you're going to get rid of the mandarin i've been working up the resolve to get one and can probably give it a nice home.

 

[qpackard]

Yeah, know that about them, I always give them flakes, Arctipods, Mysis Shrimp. Unfortunately he was not muching the molt as I saw him carrying the carcas of my $25 blood shrimp around the tank! I think he just found him post molt and ate him up. Thing that is really weird is the crab is not that big at all and he destroyed a pretty large shrimp.
Maybe we can work something out for the Mandarin. Can you trade anything?

 

[renogaw]

ehh, something else may have gotten to the shrimp, or it was the shrimp's time. my SLF carried around my 5" pink/blue spotted shrimpgoby after it died.
not sure when i'd be looking at getting a mandarin, but there's always something to trade look me up when you want to get rid of him and we'll talk.

 

[b0bby1]

who cares, ive heard of them living in 20 gallons. i say do wat u want the first time around and see wut happens. if it doesnt work out then u learn from it.

 

[qpackard]

Ha! That is what I said, learn as you go! I just do not want to continue to feed my SLF $30 shrimp! I will not be adding any additional shrimp, and am trying to re-evaluate the make up for the tank. The Mandarin is not looking great, even though I am adding cocos quite regularly, he does not seem to be doing really good. I can work a trade withsome, perhaps the goby for something small that munch some fish waste? Anyone interested?

 

[tiberius]

Originally Posted by qpackard
Ha! That is what I said, learn as you go! I just do not want to continue to feed my SLF $30 shrimp! I will not be adding any additional shrimp, and am trying to re-evaluate the make up for the tank. The Mandarin is not looking great, even though I am adding cocos quite regularly, he does not seem to be doing really good. I can work a trade withsome, perhaps the goby for something small that munch some fish waste? Anyone interested?
Does your LFS have a display tank set up? If so I would see if they could take your mandarin back and put it in that tank if they don't have one in there already. I have a green mandarin and he will only eat pods.

 

[saltn00b]

tell me you dont have a hippo in a 40 gallon

 

[renogaw]

taking bets its actually a ray in a 30...
no offense to either of you, but people offer advice so newcomers don't make the same mistakes they made. there's not a huge supply of fish, and if people have the attitude of live and learn, it's usually the fish that DON'T live so you can learn.