All you cleaner shrimp owners

[Archmage]

Hi,

A question for you owners.


How long has a cleaner shrimp disappeared at any one time?


The reason I ask is that in my tank, I have two peppermint shrimps along with two cleaner shrimps.The peps has been in there for six months now. I see them everyday in the rockwork.
I recently purchased two cleaner shrimps. They stayed out for two weeks and then up and disappeared. I see traces of shell lying around. It has been about four days now, and they still have not made an appearance. Yesterday, I went out and purchased two more, thinking that with the addition of two more, they other two would re-appear. Not the case, sadly. The LFS I went to yesterday, pulled out from their tank a huge coral banded shrimp. When I asked them about it, they said sometimes the shrimps don't survive the molting process.

Could my two cleaner shrimps have died during the molting process?
Or is it more likely that a predator has eaten them?


I have one pair percula clowns, one ebli angel and one lamark angel in my tank. Along with couple of snails and hermit crabs.

Any ideas?

 

[Anonymous]

True they could have died during molting, or been attacked while vurnable. If they do not surface in a week I would say they are gone. Mine never hide for more than a couple of days after a molt. Check the shell that is lying around it is kind of easy to tell the difference between a molt and a dead empty shell.

 

[Anonymous]

Molting is a natural process for crusaceans. The only time I think they might die during a molt is if they're already very old or sick/stressed. A healthy shrimp would not die from a molting.

I think it's probably a predator. A mantis shrimp would be my first guess.

 

[Jolieve]

My cleaner shrimp tended to hide right after molting. Do leave the exoskeleton in place and watch and see if they return. The shrimp will eat their old exoskeleton and get nutrients needed to build up a new one from it. Sounds kinda gross, but it keeps the shrimp healthy

Mine molts every six weeks like clockwork.

J.

 

[ElMonoCalvo]

My cleaner molts about once a month and he's usually out and about within 24 hours.

 

[DaGoldenChild]

my cleaner molts about once a month and disappears for about two days usually no longer than that

 

[WannaBeReefer]

This is coming from a guy just learning so you can take it with a grain of instant ocean.

I read in one of my books that if your shrimps die during the molting process that you should suspect an Iodine deficiency.

Just a thought...

 

[Anonymous]

They're gone.

I wouldn't think it's a mantis, because he would have gotten the peppermints already and he wouldn't have been hungry enough to down two cleaners in the same day.

Here's what I think:

1. Acclimation. Shrimps are sensitive to swings in salinity and other factors. They should be acclimated by a slow drip or by adding small amounts of water every few minutes over a two hour period so that the water they are in more than tripples slowly over that two hour period.


2. If you acclimated ok and your water levels are good, I think it's one of the peppermints. People say they are peaceful, but after my last pep, I will never get another one. I witnessed this monster kill and eat a perfectly healthy peppermint and a perfectly healthy skunk cleaner. He used to try to attack the other cleaner, but that cleaner fought him off and won a territory from him, which he never entered...strange behavior. It took me almost a month to catch that shrimp in a bated trap and get rid of him.


My personal thought is that you should lose the peps in favor of two or three skunk cleaners that you acclimate very slowly. Then see if they live. Toss the peps in your sump and feed them once in a while, their eggs will feed your corals and fish.