P. fridmani killed by shrimp?

[tsunamicarlos]

About two weeks ago, I purchased a P. fridmani (tank raised). I had it in quarantine for about a week. It looked healthy and was eating well. I decided to add it to the main display tank (which currently only has a pair of Ocellaris Clownfish (also tank raised) and a medium sized Yellow Tang).

Everything went fine for the first few days, but I noticed one day that the tail fin of the P. fridmani was frayed. I also began to notice that it was terrified of a duo of fire red shrimp that live in a separate cave. The shrimp would actually chase the dottyback. The fish did not seem ill otherwise. This morning, I find the fish dead inside the cave where the shrimp live. Now, this wasn't a very small fish. A 2" fridmani.

Is it possible that these normally docile "cleaner" shrimp were the culprits? Both shrimp are actually /very/ large (2-3" without antennae).

Tank parameters:

3 months old
NH4, NO2, NO3: 0
Salinity: 1.025-1.026
There's a Coralife Skimmer, a refugium brimming with copepods, and a HOT Magnum with activated carbon refreshed monthly
Inverts: 2 Fire Red Shrimp, blue legged hermit crabs, astraea snails, turbo snails, nassarius snails, and a Tonga Fighting Conch
Fish: 2 TR ocellaris clownfish, 1 yellow tang

Any help would be grealy appreciated. I'm already thinking of removing these shrimp and replacing them with neon gobies.

Carlos

 

[Len]

:welcome:

It's possible the shrimps got to it, perhaps during the night. Fire shrimps can be extremely territorial and usually don't allow anything near its area. I have one that occupies a big cave, and no fish ever swims through that cave.

 

[bleedingthought]

It's also possible that your tang could have harassed it or even a killer crab or a mantis shrimp or something else predatory. Just some other options for you, since more than likely shrimp will usually "take" the dead body of fish, whether they killed it or not.