What is killing my fish?

jdwmba88 · Apr 16, 2020

I've got a 30G mixed tank that has been running for about 9 months now. I've got 2 clowns, a tail spot blenny, 6 line wrasse, yellow watchman goby paired with a tiger pistol shrimp, an emerald crab, snails, and hermit crabs. I wasn't happy with the shrimp because it's a major bulldozer moving sand everywhere and i fear it will get too big for my tank. I catch it and exchange it for a much smaller candy cane pistol at my LFS. I never see it (other than its antennae) and sadly he doesn't pair with my YWG. Maybe a week later the YWG is gone and never saw him again. I replace him with another one and 1-2 weeks later he's gone. Last week I buy a tiny pygmy angelfish, drop it in the tank and it swims by the cave where the shrimp is holed up. With my wife and I watching the shrimp grabs hold of the angelfish pulls it into its cave never to be seen again. I know what you're thinking but we witnessed it with our own eyes, and I'm 100% positive it's a candy cane and not a mantis or something. A few days later and back to the LFS for another pygmy angelfish to try it again. I figured it was such a fluke thing that it could never happen again. I added this one after feeding the tank and turning the lights off. He made it thru the night and seemed to be doing well the next day. Then my wife walks by the tank and screams "he's dead"! This time the body is out in the open and the hermits are feasting on him so we don;t really know what happened. Do you guys have any ideas what's going on? Do I have an evil rogue pistol capable of killing multiple fish? I'm scared to add anymore fish at this point.

LiveWire · Apr 16, 2020

One option would be to try getting the pistol shrimp out of the display system and placing it in a small quarantine system. Then you could add another fish to the display and keep a close eye on it to see what happens.

If you don't have a quarantine system now is a better time than any to start one up. Just one option. I'm sure others will chime in with some other good ideas as well.

KrisReef · Apr 16, 2020

If you witnessed the shrimp take the first Angelfish I don’t know what to tell you except that it seems to be very hungry. If you don’t want to feed it then trade it back in.

kyleThatGuy · Apr 16, 2020

Get it out and take a pic like the people said in the first post you made

jdwmba88 · Apr 16, 2020

kyleThatGuy said:
Get it out and take a pic like the people said in the first post you made

I tried but couldn't get one, besides I don't feel the need to prove to people what type of shrimp it is when I know. But thanks

jdwmba88 · Apr 16, 2020

KrisReef said:
If you witnessed the shrimp take the first Angelfish I don’t know what to tell you except that it seems to be very hungry. If you don’t want to feed it then trade it back in.

Yeah, I'm sure I'll need to get rid of it. I had to take the tank apart to catch the tiger, and not looking forward to doing it again for this one