Shrimp Killer
 

So I need help figuring out which fish or kritter in my tank kills shrimp. I have never successfully been able to keep any type of shrimp. I have tried cleaner, banded and the expensive fire shrimp and they all dissapear quickly. My latest tragedy was a small banded shrimp. He lasted all of 1 hour that I could tell. My fish invenory is 2 clowns, 3 yellow tail damsals, a six line wrasse, yellow tang and royal gramma. Other than that there are some very small hermit crabs and snails. Who is committing this crime. Or is it something else. This tank is 7 years old. And keeping shrimp has been the only problem. No nitrates, S. G. is 1024. Thanks for any advise, god I hate putting critters in and having them die!

sixline maybe? could be a range of unknown hitchers though.

Is it possible that you have a mantis shrimp.

My suspision is the sixline as well. No other creatures ever noticed cruising in the tank, at night either. I have had the tank up and running for years, so if there was anyone hiding out I would have seen it.

shrimp hunter
 

I would lean towards the 6 line wrasse , I was told at fish store that it wouldn't eat the shrimp. Wanted 6 line to eat flat worm which it did after he chowed down a few shrimp. I now have 6 line in my quarantine tank. New shrimp in dispaly are thriving well now. Its too bad the 6 line is quite an impressive looking fish too. He took out 1 cleaner and 2 pepermint shrimp.lesson learned the hard way.

How are you acclimating the shrimp?

Good Point

I drip acclimate everything that i get. I ve heard that thats best way for invertes ect. I also test the salinity of the fish store water and see what there salinity is at. Ive gotten home and seen a .05 difference between theres and mine. That could cause shock and is hard on shrimp ,crabs.

chris, what makes you suspect a mantis right away? imo, probly not a mantis since the hermits and snails are fine.

as for the acclimation, +1 on this too. as a general rule, inverts are more sensitive to quick salinity changes.

I was also having a hard time with shrimp for awhile. I was floating them in bags or containers and slowly acclimating them over 30 mins or so. They would die in under a day, sometimes in as little as a couple hours. Jeff out at J&L said to try just throwing them in. It worked. I think that with the lack of circulating water in the container and proximity to lighting they were getting over heated.

I'm not too convinced about the necessity of strict acclimation procedures. In the ocean it is not uncommon for currents of different salinities and temperatures to move into reefs without laying waste to all the inhabitants. Just a thought...

I droped all my shrimp in and never had any issues.