What is killing my peppermint shrimp?

[susieq]

I've had 5 peppermint shrimp for 6 months. 3 died in the last 2 days. Last week I added a better clean up crew: cleaner shrimp, scarlett crabs, snails. I have a lawnmower blenny, clown and royal gramma in a 55 with live rock and sand. It looks like an agressive attack. Which of these is the murderer?

 

[zman1]

Are you sure they didn't molt and it was a death?

 

[susieq]

No, one of the tails was cut off with the meat still inside. The other half had the insides missing but the eyes were left. I've had shrimp for 1-1/2 years now. I thought it was molting at first too.

 

[susieq]

bump

 

[dfox]

I had a very similar experience today. I had 2 peppermint shrimp, one large one small. Had them for about 2 weeks. Just today I found the small one dead (I think) with a green legged hermit crab munching on the remains. However, as of right now, I can only see the top part of the shrimp, and I don't know what a shrimp molt looks like. The hermit crab is large and possibly could have snagged him.
I'm not positive about any of this. The shrimp could have died first. It could be that I haven't been feeding the shrimp and rest of the clean up crew enough. I sort of assumed the algae (which is plentiful) and frozen brine shrimp I've been feeding was sufficient for everyone, but possibly not. For the first time today, I fed sinking algae wafers to the tank and everyone came running. I may not have been feeding enough.
The other peppermint is large and so far none of the crabs, the 2 damsels, or brittle star has bothered him.
I guess the point of my story is this - is your clean up crew getting enough to eat?

 

[sjerseyguy]

I added a fire cleaner shrimp about a month ago and my peppermints soon went AWOL. I am guessing that cleaners seem to like the taste of peppermints.

 

[alyssia]

I have a fire shrimp and a cleaner shrimp and they have never eaten or bothered any of my peppermints.

 

[susieq]

I lost another shrimp on friday. I'm going to post a picture tomorrow. I'm starting to think my lawnmower blenny gave them all "the kiss of death" they had heavy bruises on their little abdomens.