severelysalty
New Member
I have a 55 gallon tank I have been slowly building up for the past 18 months. It is currently stable in the sense that the water tests are always good, the two fish (Coral Beauty Angel & Tomato Clown) I put in there 14 months ago are alive and healthy, and the two scissor tail Gobies I added about a month ago are also alive and well. There is a good amount of live rock with a rainbow of algae, some of those bristle worms that show up on the live rock started appearing a few months ago, and two hermit crabs have also lived in the tank since it's beginning. My problem appears to be that one of my fish, and it would have to be either the Angel or the Clown since the gobies are pretty harmless and came after the death of my shrimp and my sally light foot crab, is eating crustaceans I put in the tank. I have been told many times by the employees at the store where I've purchased all of these that everything was compatible so I'm not sure, but even though the Clown is temporarily aggressive when I put new fish in the tank (the gobies), it seems the Angel fish is the one picking at the remains of hermit crab molts and legs that fell off my sally light foot crab but I never caught him in the act of actively killing anything.
I had a peppermint shrimp in the tank living with some other fish (damsels, etc) who unfortunately didnt make it, they all attacked each other and eventually even though two of them lived about 6 months they eventually died as well. My shrimp had successfully molted once and returned from hiding, and then I added the angel and the clown, the shrimp was fine for weeks with them, he molted again and I suppose he didn't hide well enough but I found parts of his flesh stuck in one of the plants. When I came back later someone had eaten it.
Most recently I added the sally light foot along with the scissor tail gobies, who were terrorized by the clown for a day or so while they hid in the rocks and eventually they all made peace. I added the crab at the same time.....it lived about 2 days and then appeared sitting on a rock as if it were frozen and I did some research and decided I might be looking at the molting since it was missing some legs and I could see slits in the shell as if the living creature were hidden somewhere in the tank. I let time go by, probably two weeks, the molting/dead crab who knows, got moved around and eventually eaten, shell and all.
Solve the mystery, who is killing my crabs? I should note the hermit crabs molt and they are just fine nor do they seem to be picked on but then again they have a hard shell to protect them when they molt so perhaps that is the difference.
I had a peppermint shrimp in the tank living with some other fish (damsels, etc) who unfortunately didnt make it, they all attacked each other and eventually even though two of them lived about 6 months they eventually died as well. My shrimp had successfully molted once and returned from hiding, and then I added the angel and the clown, the shrimp was fine for weeks with them, he molted again and I suppose he didn't hide well enough but I found parts of his flesh stuck in one of the plants. When I came back later someone had eaten it.
Most recently I added the sally light foot along with the scissor tail gobies, who were terrorized by the clown for a day or so while they hid in the rocks and eventually they all made peace. I added the crab at the same time.....it lived about 2 days and then appeared sitting on a rock as if it were frozen and I did some research and decided I might be looking at the molting since it was missing some legs and I could see slits in the shell as if the living creature were hidden somewhere in the tank. I let time go by, probably two weeks, the molting/dead crab who knows, got moved around and eventually eaten, shell and all.
Solve the mystery, who is killing my crabs? I should note the hermit crabs molt and they are just fine nor do they seem to be picked on but then again they have a hard shell to protect them when they molt so perhaps that is the difference.
