loud popping and dead cleaner shrimp

N

nihoa

Guest
as titled, there are loud popping noises coming from our tank since adding a new piece of live rock yesterday and now our beloved cleaner shrimp, jimmy the janitor, is dead. does this sound like a pistol or mantis shrimp? i hear pistols are reef safe but have read in smaller tanks, like my 33 gallon, they can take out other shrimp.
so what to do? i dunno if its a pistol or a mantis and cant say i care, i wanna get it outta the tank and the local pet store can have it. freshwater dip is the way to go about this? will a freshwater dip kill the little feather dusters and stuff like that on my live rock? how long do i dip? and when something comes out net it from the freshwater and get it back into salt or after the dip is it pretty much done for?
 
txfishman

txfishman

Member
Yes it is a pistol or mantis for sure. I would try and cetch it instead of risking killing all the organisms on your live rock.
 
renogaw

renogaw

Active Member
i've seen a movie of pistol shrimps killing cleaner shrimps, and every single peppermint i've owned ends up disappearing and i have a pistol shrimp.
 
spanko

spanko

Active Member
Fresh water dip will "kill" the live rock for sure. If you can take the rocks out mix up a solution of water at 1.030 and dip rocks in that. (hypersalinity water) Whatever critters are in the rock will come out and go to the bottom of the container then you can pick and choose which you want to keep. If when you see the subject shrimp DO NOT PICK IT UP WITH YOUR HAND! Use a net to grab it. Also if you see bristle worms do not pick them up either unless you have gloves on.
 
jigga w00t

jigga w00t

Member
Originally Posted by renogaw
http:///forum/post/2910579
i've seen a movie of pistol shrimps killing cleaner shrimps, and every single peppermint i've owned ends up disappearing and i have a pistol shrimp.
I've lost 2 peppermint shrimps in my tank, and I blame the pistol hitchhiker shrimp. But I had a cleaner shrimp in my tank for a while, and it was rather large. How big was your cleaner shrimp? If you want to get another one, you may just want to buy the largest one you can find...
 
N

nihoa

Guest
our cleaner was a good 2 - 3 inches.
i got the pistol shrimp out by removing the piece of live rock it was concealed in and dipped it quickly in freshwater (i would have taken spankos advice and dipped in water a bit less saline than our tank but his/her post came a few days after my post and i think i panicked). thankfully we havent had any die-off from the dip and all the feather dusters, coralline algae, sponges and tubeworm things all seem to be fine.
the pistol was probably 1/2 inch - 3/4 inches and when i dropped it into a glass measuring cup he pinged the ---- out of it. it was crazy how loud it was, it sounded like someone was hitting the cup with a butter knife. anyway, i called the shop we got the live rock from and told them they could have it for store credit which is a little cheeky beings how it came from them in the first place! hahah, they agreed though and we got a bunch of hermit crabs for our trouble (no cleaner shrimp in stock).
amazing hobby, every week its something isnt there?
 
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