Craziest thing just happened

SourAngelfish · Dec 22, 2017

I've been suspecting possible flukes for a couple of days cause I saw a stray dot on one of my fish, so I being the type to overreact to tiny things did a freshwater dip to see if any thing would fall off. (Saw nothing) I put the fish back in the tank and it acted as usual... I actually ended up dipping both of my fish and one was more delicate than the other. The hardier of the two the goby usually acts lethargic so I had no worries. I have a fairly large and aggressive peppermint shrimp that does some unusual things and when I came back it had eaten the fish's insides . Should I be worried about this?

Flippers4pups · Dec 22, 2017

TheReefer27 said:
I've been suspecting possible flukes for a couple of days cause I saw a stray dot on one of my fish, so I being the type to overreact to tiny things did a freshwater dip to see if any thing would fall off. (Saw nothing) I put the fish back in the tank and it acted as usual... I actually ended up dipping both of my fish and one was more delicate than the other. The hardier of the two the goby usually acts lethargic so I had no worries. I have a fairly large and aggressive peppermint shrimp that does some unusual things and when I came back it had eaten the fish's insides . Should I be worried about this?

So you had one of the gobies die. It was acting lethargic before perishing and the peppermint shrimp was eating the goby. Was there any other signs of disease or parasites on the deceased goby and how's the other one doing?

SourAngelfish · Dec 22, 2017

Flippers4pups said:
So you had one of the gobies die. It was acting lethargic before perishing and the peppermint shrimp was eating the goby. Was there any other signs of disease or parasites on the deceased goby and how's the other one doing?

The other fish is doing great, besides the one stray dot there was a bit of itching so I suspected external flukes, I read somewhere that you can shine a flashlight in the freshwater bath after the dip and see the larger dead flukes, I saw nothing. I'm not really worried about the disease to much anymore. This shrimp has chased new tank inhabitants previously and will act surprisingly aggressive at times, the goby was just sitting around like he usually will. I suspect the shrimp ate the fish while behaving in a lethargic manner, as before besides the few signs of flukes the fish was acting completely healthy so I'm not sure.

Flippers4pups · Dec 22, 2017

TheReefer27 said:
The other fish is doing great, besides the one stray dot there was a bit of itching so I suspected external flukes, I read somewhere that you can shine a flashlight in the freshwater bath after the dip and see the larger dead flukes, I saw nothing. I'm not really worried about the disease to much anymore. This shrimp has chased new tank inhabitants previously and will act surprisingly aggressive at times, the goby was just sitting around like he usually will. I suspect the shrimp ate the fish while behaving in a lethargic manner, as before besides the few signs of flukes the fish was acting completely healthy so I'm not sure.

A healthy fish would not allow a shrimp to damage it, let alone attack it. I suspect that the fish would have died and the shrimp went for it's flesh.

The only shrimp that I'm aware of with the ability to take down a small fish would be a banded shrimp. Crabs are a different story. Arrow crabs come to mind......

SourAngelfish · Dec 22, 2017

Interesting, I'll probably just return the shrimp just to be safe

Flippers4pups · Dec 22, 2017

TheReefer27 said:
Interesting, I'll probably just return the shrimp just to be safe

You could do that, but there is a cause why the goby died.

sanchoy · Dec 22, 2017

Peppers will not take out a fish, unless the fish is dead or barely dead. Your shrimp is not the culprit, it was only doing what is natural, that is scavenging a dead fish