Did the pseudochromis eat my shrimp?

[BBell]

I've had some trouble keeping crustaceans. I recently moved and downsized the reef from 75G to 20G. I discovered a very large (~14" long and 1/2" diameter) "bristle" worm in the sand bed of the old tank. Hoping that this was the predator that had been knocking off my shrimp and crabs, I picked up an emerald crab. The crab has been doing well for several weeks, so I added a cleaner shrimp. It has promptly disapeared and I have seen peices of its carapace. I guess it could have molted and is hiding out but that seem coincidental.

I found a site that indicating that pseudochromis will eat shrimp. Do you think my bicolor pseudo had a really good meal?

[SAW39]

I have a small pseudochromid (Orchid Dottyback) and I haven't had any trouble vs. my two peppermint shrimp, who are slightly smaller than the Dottyback. References that I've found say that they eat small crustaceans in the wild, so if the shrimp was much smaller than the psuedochromis, than it might have been lunch.
By the way, one of my shrimps molted and stayed hidden for a week. I finally found him hiding on the back glass, behind the pump to the skimmer.
Also your crab, Mithrax sculptus, will eat small fish if he can catch them. I would guess the same applies to shrimp, if he can catch them.

[amcarrig]

I lost a large number of shrimp to pseudochromis so as far as I'm concerned, when you mix the two in a tank, you're just asking for losses.

[karlas]

i had a purple pseudochromis and he did like nipping at shrimp i had gotten ghost shrimp and he loved them so he may be the culprit but with me trying to keep shrimp and crabs i finally caught him and got rid of him before he did to much muchin

[SAW39]

So, maybe I've been lucky. Perhaps the Domino and the Clownfish are keeping the Dottyback out of trouble. They chase him over to the right side of the tank, and all my shrimp are now always on the left side!