Why are all my red legged hermits dying!!???

[shy07guy]

I was gone over the weekend and when I returned on Monday evening I found my first loss in my tank. There was a bunch of red legs scatered around a shell and I figured it must have gotten into a fight with another or something. Then on Tues night I found a red legged hermit crawling around on a rock with out his shell which was in a hole not to far away. I brought the old shell from the first dead hermit over by him but he wouldnt take and jump off the rock a few minutes later and died. This moring I woke to find another one of my red legged hermits dead and pulled out of his shell on top of another rock his meaty tail is just a few white stringy things now. I have no idea what is going on. I have two tiny hermits and they seem fine as do my snails, however the last two red legged hermits and my electric blue hermit no longer seem to come out that much they spend most of the time hiding in rock crevices so that all I can see is the shell. I know they are still allive because they move from hole to hole sometime in the night or when I am not looking but their behavior has completely changed and I have no idea why are they sick and just gettin picked off or do I have something that is hunthign them and killing them. I am testing all my parameters again but I just had my water checked by the pet store on tues eveing and it was fine Nitrates, Nitrites, and ammonia all zero. Thanks for the help
Sincerely
Derek

 

[fishfanatic2]

Noticed any clicking sounds? COuld be a mantis shrimp. What else is in the tank/how is that faring?

 

[shy07guy]

Only other things in the tank are snails turbos, astreas, and red moons, I have heard clicking noises but have yet been able to see whatever is making them. I am setting up an inverted bottle trap at the moment to try and catch somethign I hope Thanks for the help
Sincerely
Derek

 

[kstuber]

Hi Derek,

I've heard loud clicking in my tank for 6 yrs now, which I suspect is a mantis shrimp, though I've never seen it. We didn't even see it when we moved 4 years ago, which meant taking all of the rock out.

When I put in a new batch of scarlets, they seem to be picked off rather quickly. Usually the animal is eaten, though this recent order I've seen crabs just laying outside their shells, with the shell nearby, and they're not eaten! This may be another issue, but I'm convinced that there's something preying on the scarlets. I went about 1 year with only 1 or 2 scarlets in there, and the clicking stopped. This recent batch started it up again.

I believe I won't be providing this expensive diet for the predator any longer. I really like the scarlets though, so it's a shame.

 

[fishfanatic2]

Mantis will definitely make a snack out of any shrimp, crab, anything.

They're smart, too, so once they know a trap is bad, they won't go in it. Look for white tentacles/shrimp crawling around at night.

Unless you have a pistol shrimp, it's 90% likely it's a mantis. 8O

HTH