My Cleaner shrimps mysteriously disappearing 

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Hi Guys,

Cleaner shrimp No2 mysteriously disappeared ? Any idea what can be going on ?

1st one moulted and bang no sign of him anywhere ???? a month later the same happens to my last one ?

Anyone experienced this ?

Only live stock in tank are:

2X Serbae Clowns,
1X Yellow Tail Damsel
1X Lawnmower Blennie
Some xenia
Big Frog spawn.
4X Hermit crabs
 
Hi Sammy - do you have an anemone in your tank?

The shrimps might just be hiding aways after molting - they sometimes do this because their exoskeleton's are then very soft still, and they are scared of predation at this time.

If you have a nemmie - then the shrimps might have gotten stuck on the anemone's tentacles, which could have possibly stung it to death - I have experienced this too many times before.....
Therefor I do not keep cleaner shrimps in my reef tank anymore....
 
No anemone, I'm not sure about hiding, I lost one over a month ago ??? He never appeared, that time I thought it could be his brother that ate him ???

Now I've lost my last one ?
 
Hi Sammy - do you have an anemone in your tank?

The shrimps might just be hiding aways after molting - they sometimes do this because their exoskeleton's are then very soft still, and they are scared of predation at this time.

If you have a nemmie - then the shrimps might have gotten stuck on the anemone's tentacles, which could have possibly stung it to death - I have experienced this too many times before.....
Therefor I do not keep cleaner shrimps in my reef tank anymore....

When I feed my nennie some prawn, i've seen my shrimps jump right on top of it and pull the food out of its mouth... and its about 20cm in diameter, not small.....
 
Just a thought, could you not possibly have a mantis shrimp or pistol shrimp hiding away in your LR?
 
I have lost 4 cleaners and I have nothing that will eat them, their antenna get broken off and then they disappear. The first 2 I had for well over a year and then their antenna started getting shorter and then they are gone not at the same time weeks apart. What I have seen is I do have a very very big bristle worm. Wonder if he is the culprit.
 
I have lost 4 cleaners and I have nothing that will eat them, their antenna get broken off and then they disappear. The first 2 I had for well over a year and then their antenna started getting shorter and then they are gone not at the same time weeks apart. What I have seen is I do have a very very big bristle worm. Wonder if he is the culprit.
Interesting thought! I've seen some mean size bristle worms. I suppose after the cleaner's have moulted it's very opssible for a big bristle worm to take them on...
 
I have the same problem...got 2 about a month ago and they shed as normal...1 went missing a week ago and now second one is gone.
My water is near perfect and my SG does not change. Also never used any coper in my tanks..
 
Hi been studying my tank for ages and not seen any nasties lurking ???

I use NSW
 
CSI Fish Tanks

I use real Ocean. I have bristle starts but they don't seem to be interested in much..
 
I would suspect the hermits....
 
sammy have some :p get from him.

Maybe you have a nasty crab in yer liverock. They can an do become big and nasty sometimes
 
And if I don't have any.
maybe the shrimp are part of some huge conspiracy to separate the hard working aquarist from his cash? I have hermits in my tank and the go over absolutely everything, even sit on my starfish sometimes and he's fine with it, i've never seen them attack anything other that other hermits, so IMO they might not be to blame here. But what i have seen in some tanks is than when some stuff dies everythin comes along and takes a bit out of it and it dissapears eventually, could this be the story? where they have moulted, become defensless and picked off?
 
Do you add iodine to your water?
 
yes I do dose iodine, I know they need that for their skeleton ?
 
if you got powerheads they might be inside them, ive lost 2 , they were sucked in by the power heads, ive replaced them with seio.
 
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