Evil cleaner shrimp

[petjunkie]

So, I've finally discovered where all my hermits are going. When I ordered inverts I got fifteen hermits, arrow crab, 2 cleaner shrimp, a coral banded shrimp, snails and now I've added a spider decorater. I figured some of the hermits may get eaten and the second day in the arrow crab ate one. There's also a collection of empty shells under where my cbs hangs during the day so I assumed he's been eating them until I came home to see one of the cleaners rip the hermit out, eat the meaty part and toss it aside, which leds me to believe it's the cleaners killing and the rest cleaning it up. Do cleaners normally kill hermits? I thought they would be the least likely to do it!!!!

 

[fishieness]

hmm.... that sounds realy odd.... you must have some whimpy--$$ hermits. haha. try spot feding your shrimps, this will help.

 

[danedodger]

Are you positive the hermie was alive when the cleaner ripped it out of the shell? If it was already dead for some reason or even on it's way out maybe the cleaner was just doing his job by cleaning.
In freshwater plecos ("sucker fish") have a bad rap because so many people see them sucking on dead or dying fish. People assume it was the pleco that killed the fish but in reality the pleco was just doing it's job by cleaning up a mess.

 

[angelsrock]

i don't think it was the cleaner shrimp at all. like dane said it was just cleaning the tank. arrow crabs are notorious for killing inverts, especially hermit crabs. i would take that guy out of the tank.

 

[petjunkie]

No, no I watched him do it!!! He was just cleaning the rock and then looked over at the hermit and somehow grabbed him out of the shell and was eating the meaty part before I even realized what was going on!!! I really didn't think they could even do that. My arrow crab I've only seen eat one and then I saw him pick one up that had been left on the substrate for a few hours so I don't think he killed that one because the first one he killed he chewed on all day long where the cleaner just ate the good part of the one he killed and dropped it. Unbelievable!!!!

 

[angelsrock]

haha that's pretty funny i've never heard of a cleaner doing this. needless to say i would still take out the arrow, and it sounds like the cleaner was desperate for food. you might want to up the food you are feeding the cleaner.

 

[_nix_]

I have seen my cleaner kill one of my zebra hermits before.
Not really sure as to why, just all of a sudden, he did.
It has only happened once that I have noticed, but to me, once is enough.