peppermint shrimp went missing...

[kolizion]

I don't think I have anything in my tank that would eat a shrimp....
I have a small 30 gallon tank,
a zebra snail, some smaller snails, a few hermit crabs, a lawnmower blenny... and one now missing peppermint shrimp.
maybe about a week ago or so I found parts of a hermit crab all chewed up in my tank..... but strangly... no leftover shell.
I was confused by that one.... but didn't think anything of it.
this morning.... I found a dried up snail shell behind the aquarium... ((didn't think much of it... wandering snail was stupid and got out ))
but my shrimp was nowhere to be found! lifted up my liverock... no shrimp...
checked behind the tank for a dried up shrimp.... ((didn't think they ould try and leave the tank... but figured Id check anyway)) no shrimp.
Would my blenny attack and gobble him with no trace? Cuz i'll be damned if I know what happend to my freaken shrimp.

 

[speg]

A lawnmower wouldnt do it.
Is it possible that the shrimp molted and is just hiding really good... ?
It could be possible the hermit crabs you seen were just the molts too.
Although if you are finding such things going missing.. its possible you have a mantis shrimp.

 

[kolizion]

how hard is a mantis shrimp to find? I only have 2 chunks of rock..
one live, one dead
It might have been a molt.... but i'm pretty sure that was a mutilated crab. halfa body, and some of his legs.
but that was a big shrimp to "vanish" with no trace whatsoever.
I do have a cat which likes to sit by the tank and watch... routinley... But I have my doubts she would figure out how to steal a shrimp, especially if she didn't notice a dead snail.

 

[speg]

Mantis are clever little things. They may hide inside the rock (in holes/crevices/etc). Or they may dig out from under a rock creating burrows much like a pistol shrimp.
If you dont have anything attached to those rocks you may wanna try what some suggest to get bad hitchhikers out of rocks. Get a bucket and fill it with saltwater. You want the salinity to be VERY high - around 1.035-1.040. Place the rocks inside the buckets of saltwater and let them sit in them for a couple minutes. Any invertebrates should quickly leave the rock and fall into the bucket.. its then up to you to decide what stays and what goes.
This doesnt always work.. but its worth a try.

 

[kolizion]

ID love to try this, but I have some baby dusters, and what apears to be a sponge starting on the rock.... would this damage them?

 

[speg]

It depends on how long you do it for. It very well could though... but if it is a mantis shrimp.. your problems will only continue to get worse. One day you'll wake up and there will be no hermits/fish/shrimp/snails in your tank

 

[kolizion]

how big is the culprit i'm looking for? and will my dusters eventially come back?

 

[speg]

If a duster dies.. it wont come back obviously. They are worms and if the worm dies....
The mantis shrimp could be anywhere from a inch long to several inches. Some stay small and other species get quite large. I believe some are measured to be a couple feet long! Of course you wont have one that big though

 

[kolizion]

is there some sort of food I can tempt the evil thing out with to see if I have one before doing that first?
hate to kill off the dusters without knowing for sure.
have peppermints ever been known to leave tanks?

 

[speg]

If you knew where abouts it was..
Maybe late at night you can attempt to throw in a piece of dead fish or something and watch your tank and see what comes after it.. if you have moonlights you could see without having to have a flashlight.

 

[kolizion]

I really hope the shrimp went for a stroll with the snail....
I guess now I have to keep an eye out for both....

 

[kolizion]

damnit.. another 1/2 a crab this morning... I have to have a mantis....
there just isn't an explination for 1/2 eaten things.....
I know I don't have evil snails!
bloody hell.

 

[kolizion]

ok, so I don't get it... I checked all the ways I could today.... and the only little critters that came out were some baby snails, and one very very small cenipede like creature... which i'm guessing could have been a mantis shrimp.... but it wasn't moving or very speedy... and it was so small that I really doubt it could have made my peppermint shrimp vanish along with a crab.
Half a crab... no shell..... doesn't make sence! I'll have to set up a cam at night with motion detection to see if I can find anything out. Cuz i'm bloody stumped.
((I might bite and say by some luck it was a molt.... but i'm still stumped over the missing shrimp.))

 

[aelene]

Isn't it possible the shrimp died and the hermit crabs ate it before you found any evidence? My cleaner shrimp died and I came home to them "cleaning" it up. They got rid of all evidence in time so it's possible you have that scenario. The hermit pieces you are seeing sound like they are molting.

 

[kolizion]

this could also be the case. I'm lucky enought to say that I didn't seem to hurt any of the live stuff on the rock. I think.. I guess time will tell about that.
how quickly can they devour a shrimp? I do have a lot of bottom feeding stuff that could have whiped away the evedance. I have 3 hermits, and 4 of those snails that bury themselfs in the sand.... they ate up the shrimps molt.
I guess i'll bite the bullet and just get another shrimp...

 

[puffer32]

That cenepede looking thing is probably a bristle worm, it wouldn't have eaten your shrimp.

 

[aelene]

My guys got rid of my cleaner shrimp very quickly. Had I come home 45 minutes later I would have never known what had happened to him.. and he was a fairly large guy. I still don't know why he died.. I'm assuming he tried to molt and he got jumped.

Poor little guy. I have more hermits than you do, but all the peppermint shrimp I've seen have been pretty small, so I think it's a definite possibility for you.
Good luck though, I wouldn't worry too much about mantis or something like that unless you have more evidence that there is treachery afoot :happyfish