BLOOD SHRIMP?!

[justjes45]

Hey guys, I have a bizarre question. What the odds a blood shrimp could be aggressive enough to eat all the fish and other shrimp in your tank?
I started my 30 gallon Nuvo tank in February- I have had him the longest. He was my first purchase. He is only out/ visible during feedings. Or general water disturbances. According to the guy I go to at the fish store, this is not normal? They should be quite the show piece and fun to watch?
I have now "lost" three anenomes, 3 fish and a camel back shrimp. The shrimp disappeared yesterday.
Not " sick" not uncared for..... MISSING. no bodies to be found.
Would a blood shrimp do this? I have one speedy snowflake clown left... He is lonely- his best friend was the shrimp...


Just sitt'in round, staring at my tank...

 

[ReefMadScientist]

It is possible if it is starving or just a troll.

How big is this shrimp?

Oh, and there is no such thing as "normal" when it comes to a reef tank. I watched a post from @revhtree where some dude was petting a tang like it was a porpoise.

 

[justjes45]

Ha ha! I would LOVE to pet my fish!
The shrimp is about 2" maybe a touch more-

 

[ReefMadScientist]

Ha ha! I would LOVE to pet my fish!
The shrimp is about 2" maybe a touch more-

It is possible that it is just hungry.

If you can, trade him in and get a smaller one or another fish.

 

[justjes45]

So bizarre- I feed my tank every 2-3 days... Only one fish now and two.. No as of this morning, ONE shrimp...
My nitrates were SUPER high and I was told I was OVER feeding....
Man, this is tricky!

 

[shred5]

I have never seen a cleaner shrimp of any kind that ate a fish or could.
Honestly I have had tons and never seen them touch anything other than anemones and maybe tube worms or critters in the rock. No way they are eating fish.
I even have anemone shrimp in the tank and sexy shrimp..
I have seen them rip into anemones who were just fed and that is a problem with any shrimp really.

Sound more like you have a crab or mantis shrimp.
Camel back shrimp are also not reef safe.

 

[justjes45]

Hmmm interesting- the mystery continues-- now with an added hunt! Thanks!

 

[ReefMadScientist]

I have never seen a cleaner shrimp of any kind that ate a fish or could.
Honestly I have had tons and never seen them touch anything other than anemones and maybe tube worms or critters in the rock. No way they are eating fish.
I even have anemone shrimp in the tank and sexy shrimp..
I have seen them rip into anemones who were just fed and that is a problem with any shrimp really.

Sound more like you have a crab or mantis shrimp.
Camel back shrimp are also not reef safe.

I did find a gorilla crab in my tank lurking the depths...

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/what-is-this-beast-of-the-night-evil-dwelling-scally-wag.154198/

 

[soggytees Verified Sponsor]

Or a bobbit worm...those things are evil

 

[Emac909]

Do the anemones just disappear or do they gape and get all nasty? But like I said on Scr I thought it was a water quality issue and u said your parameters were good. But high nitrates aren't good. Nitrates are very harmful to anemones and if they get really high then they're harmful to fish. I would reduce feeding.

 

[justjes45]

They totally disappeared. No slime, no sick anemone...
Wondering if they died and the shrimp/ cleaning crew instantly went to work?

 

[justjes45]

Ok- just looked up "Bobbit Worm"... And they are TERRIFYING!!!

 

[rajkovich207]

Did you start your tank with dry or live rock?

 

[Emac909]

They totally disappeared. No slime, no sick anemone...
Wondering if they died and the shrimp/ cleaning crew instantly went to work?

Usually when nems aren't health or happy whey will go into hiding.
I've never had a nem die over night. It's really a few day to a week proses (unless it gets caught up in a pump). First their mouth will start gapping and then fallowed by deterioration of the whole thing. I usually will put them in a qt tank with cypro when they start to gape.

 

[justjes45]

I started with live rock-
Yeah I have one hiding... Don't know how to coax him out/
Going to test water again tomorrow

 

[Ahruk]

Did you ever figure out what was going on?

 

[Tahoe61]

I have had a Fire Shrimp in all my anemone tanks, have one currently, never had an issue other then the shrimps being reclusive. To say a Fire Shrimp is out and about and a show piece is quite a bit of an exaggeration, anything to make a sale I guess.

 

[Shep]

I have a pair of them in my tank and the one will come out during the day (only a little bit in front of its cave) but the other one says hidden all day. They will come up to me and take food out of my hands, which is awesome. I really can not imagine that they would go rouge and murder anything.