Canivorous Cleaner Shrimp?

[DaGoldenChild]

My Cleaner Shrimp ate my Feather duster i was wondering if this ever happen to anyone else and what is the cause of this?

 

[tazdevil]

Never had a cleaner do that, but what type of cleaner was it (I've only kept the skunk-striped one's, had some nasty experience with a coral banded shrimp, it attacked me!).

I have heard, but never witnessed, of some shrimp varieties pull feather dusters out of their tubes, I would assume most only if the feather duster was dying, hence a meal.

 

[DaGoldenChild]

its a skunk striped cleaner shrimp, im almost positive the feather duster wasnt dying it was doing fine this morning when i left and when i got home it was a meal

 

[Revstarky]

Just out of curiosity, what evidence did you find that the worm was eaten?

 

[Anonymous]

DaGoldenChild, are you feeding your shrimp anything or are you relying solely on filter feeding and detritus? it's possible that they might be hungry and that's why they might be apt to eat other critters in the tank. but i wonder if maybe your duster hadn't already passed and the shrimp was just feeding on the carcass.

 

[Anonymous]

I'm with coral I have never witness a cleaner eat an of the dusters in my tank.

 

[DaGoldenChild]

Just out of curiosity, what evidence did you find that the worm was eaten?

when i came home I saw it was half eaten and then i seen the shrimp eating the other half

 

[DaGoldenChild]

DaGoldenChild, are you feeding your shrimp anything or are you relying solely on filter feeding and detritus? it's possible that they might be hungry and that's why they might be apt to eat other critters in the tank. but i wonder if maybe your duster hadn't already passed and the shrimp was just feeding on the carcass.

yes i am feeding it and it also eats detritus and filter feeds i know this because i have watched it eat these things a few times but i am also feeding it. and im sure the duster hadn't passed it was healthly before i left that morning and when i came home that afternoon it was already half eaten and i saw the shrimp eating the other half

 

[Anonymous]

DaGoldenChild, even though it seemed that your feather duster was quite healthy the first time you saw it, it's still quite possible that it was just it's "time".

another thought - how long had you had your duster? sometimes, when i bring home a new feather, they will hang around a couple days and suddenly disappear on me. then all i see is their tube and no worm. within a few days, the feather will emerge again but in a new spot with a brand new tube. it's possible that it may just be reconstructing a new home and just abandoned the other. when that happenes in my tank, my shrimp are always the first to clean up the old mess.

 

[DaGoldenChild]

i've had it for about 2 months

 

[Anonymous]

I just had two shed their crowns...they are growing back, but when I saw the cown on the sand bellow the duster cluster, I thought it was dead...now it is growing back a week later. Maybe yours will grow back as well.

If it is dead, I would assume that something went wrong other than the shrimp tearing a healthy dister from it's tube. I would think the dister jumped ship because of water wuality issues and was then eaten by shrimpo and crabs.

 

[Anonymous]

My nassarius' munched the crown of the duster I had that shed recently.. (Well, some paly polps got a few good chunks out of it while it was blowing around too...)

Da, was it the whole worm or just the crown?

 

[JennM]

If the worm was half eaten and you found the shrimp eating the "other half" it's possible that something else caused it to die, and the cleaner was just ... umm cleaning up.

Hermits have been known to be opportunists, could be that they took out the duster and the shrimp was left holding the smoking gun.

They will scavenge but have never ever seen one take down a healthy living creature.

Jenn

 

[DaGoldenChild]

thats probably what happened, thanx everyone