Fire Shrimp attacked by hermet crabs???

socalninja650

socalninja650

Member
I have a 29g with lr, ls, 5 hermet crabs and a fire shrimp. I woke up this morning and found that my shrimp had been shredded it seemed. He wasn't moving but I thought maybe he was molting, so I let him be. I checked him later on and still he wasn't moving from the same spot, and I didn't see any exoskeleton in the tank.
My question is would by hermet crabs be attacking him? Is it normal for them to be like that towards other invertebrates?
Or is it possible that my shrimp somehow got caught in my powerhead? I really don't think this is possible because my powerhead is pretty high from my rock, so I don't think that he would have been able to reach it.
I'm shocked and don't really know what happened.
 
snakeblitz33

snakeblitz33

Well-Known Member
I'm thinking it died somehow and the hermits were doing what they do best. I highly doubt that some small reef hermits would directly track down and kill a shrimp for food...
Something else happened to cause it's death... age maybe... temp swing, pH swing, ... could be a number of things.
 
1guydude

1guydude

Well-Known Member
Welcome to the board....wat kind of hermits...big or small? Hairy?
Im thinkin it may be a molt too...how old or big was ur fire shrimp?
They usually molt when introduced to the aquarium!
How long has it been in ur tank?
 
socalninja650

socalninja650

Member
Thanks Snake!
I'm pretty sure it wasn't a molt because he has molted before when I first got him, which was about 3 weeks ago. I don't dose any copper either. He was decent size. The hermets are small though and not hairy. I'll post my parameters tomorrow. Should I post a pic?
 
socalninja650

socalninja650

Member
Parameters:
Trites: <.5 ppm
Trates: 20ppm
Alk: 80 (super low for some reason but I started dosing a dKH buffer so it should come up) I don't think it was this low the night before I found him like this though.
Amm: <.5 ppm
Ca: 420ppm
pH: 7.9
Temp: 79.6
 
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