cleaner shrimp eating hermit crabs

[franv]

hi everyone,
i noticed one of my hermits out of his shell on a rock and another being devoured by my cleaner shrimp. i caught the one they were eating and put a shell beside the exposed one which he quickly "moved into".

heres my question.

are my hermits being pulled out of their shells by the cleaner shrimp or do they leave their shell and shed a body like shrimp??
maybe the shrimp are under fed? as there is only one juvinile clownfish in the tank and im feeding only a small amount of cyclopseeze and other small pellets 3 times a day. (and small piece of algae once a week. (for salarias blennie nut shrimp and snails eat most of it)

thanks in advance for sharing your knowledge and experience.

fran

 

[Randall_James]

I have never seen a cleaner shrimp go after a live anything... But then again I have never seen a hermit abandon his shell and hang out for someone to bring a new one either.

 

[franv]

ive seen my hermits pulling snails out of their shells and eat them ... and ive seen them eating a tyoe of star fish in my lfs

 

[franv]

sorry i thought u said u'd never seen a shrimp or a hermit go after anything! my mistake.

 

[sean48183]

Feed your shrimp some squid or even some flake a couple times a week. I hand fed mine for a couple of years before somebody in my tank ate him.

 

[MJT82]

Are you sure that he isn't picking at the hermit crab molts? I have never heard of them actually killing and eating anything!

 

[sunfish11]

I sat there and watched my skunk cleaners hunt and kill almost ever single stomatella snail in my display. There are only a couple of larger ones left now, so they will hunt live critters. Hermits molt and then they hide shelless in the rockwork while they harden back up. I could see shrimp taking them out while they are vulnerable. They are opportunistic feeders. I drop in a few sinking pellets for them every so often and it seems to curb the killer instinct.

 

[franv]

cool , good to know sunfish. thanks a million

 

[WingnutSr]

This may be a little off topic, (apologies) but I have seen my peppermint shrimp actually attack and totaly eat my queen conchs. A while back I added 2 small conchs, and it was like someone rang the dinner bell! The shrimp came racing out and pounced on them. Tried moving the conchs to differant spot, but the shrimp found them in less than a minute and finished them promptly.