Missing or dead or eaten cleaner shrimp

The porcelain crab could be he culprit, eh reiple?

 

[quote author=amcarrig link=board=ASAP;num=1101074960;start=15#29 date=11/23/04 at 06:43:24]
Now, I don't want to take this thread off topic  [/quote]

Nearly spat my coffee all over my keyboard

John

 

Reiple,

I am not sure about the brittle star being an opportunistic feeder.....all I have heard is anecdotal (sp?) , no hard facts (gee no surprise in this hobby!)

Some say they are absoulute detrivores....others say opportunistic. It is a black one , which is supposed to be "less opportunistic" than say the green ones or the serpent stars. I don't know. Thus my dilemna, fish or star removal or both?

 

{b]My black brittle star ate two sleeping Carpenter's Wasses, I wish that was anecdotal as it cost me about $65.[/b]

 

anemone is in the same tank. a lot of people told me it was a mistake?!?!? might it have "feasted" on the shrimp? OMG!

 

I would have been one of those people    And yes, it is fully capable of eating your shrimp. My carpet was kind enough to rid me of a powder blue tang and a sand sifting starfish.  What's your trick to keeping your fish from being swallowed, assuming you have one?  

 

[quote author=Craig_Manoukian link=board=ASAP;num=1101074960;start=30#30 date=11/23/04 at 08:59:47]The porcelain crab could be he culprit, eh reiple?[/quote]

I should move it to the sump then? how do you hunt down a crab? i'll try to wait tomorrow eve and catch the little (about an inch? is that still little?) bugger.

thanks craig!

 

Birdlady - that is true! a lot of anecdotal or IME inputs from this hobby. Some have been helpful though.

Sorry but all I know about brittle stars is anecdotal too.

But if you base it on observation (and this is troubling) animals in a small confined space might behave abnormally when eating and become opportunistic. Like a normally reef safe hermit suddenly attacks feather duster worms or corals. I've seen this before!

Another extremely anecdotal yet really IME know how is about snow flake eels (SFE). Eels are known to eat animals and are very carnivorous. Yet I have never seen in my 3++ years with SFE (three specimens) eat a marine fish I also had unless it was dead already (I did see it eat a dead damsel). Plus they also do not jump out of tanks (all my tanks are open). Urban legend says so otherwise! (the only time I had a SFE jump out was when I was a noobie and placed two in the same tank. After acclimatizing they fought like hell until one jumped out).

sorry....blabbering again...

 

In addition to my black brittle star experience, I watched my snow flake eel eat two small Cardinal Fish and we fed it like a pig. Had a spiny blue lobster that ate two small chromis. All three of the BBS, SFE, and SBL went back to the LFS after the second strike. All were well fed.

All my fish and corals are fat and happy!

 

Oh darnit. Craig....I am assuming you were an eye witness to the carnage then...sorry 'bout your losses :'(

Since this thread started, I have seen both my fish and my star suspiciously close to my last lysmata. :-/ Or perhaps I am looking at them differently now.

Well, my daughter wanted clowns and I don't think I would have a happy family with the clowns and the pseudo so...perhaps I can trade him in. Clowns should not eat my shrimp , right? Percs most probably....