My cleaner shrimp ate my nassarius!

[GhostCon1]

Has anyone else had this happen to them? I saw a nassarius I bought last week finally start moving around and he was gliding on the glass and looked really nice.

Looked in the tank just now, can't find him anywhere, and I see one of my cleaners has this hunk of meat that he is eating. :mad2:

 

[cbr600rri]

the nassarius snail was probably dying/dead before the shrimp started picking at it. but I guess it could happen if they were really hungry. Do you feed the shrimp?

 

[GhostCon1]

Yes, they are greedy little pigs. They get pellet and brine/mysis. Also, the snail was moving around on the glass and looked really healthy.

 

[cbr600rri]

so did you see it "attack" the snail? btw, do you see the shell? If not, that hunk of meat could have been something else.

 

[GhostCon1]

Yeah, I finally located the shell. It was behind a rock in plain sight, what's wierd is that it still has the opercullum (sp (the door thing)) attached so...

Maybe it got the one tiger nassarius I had in there that I haven't seen in weeks.

I just assumed that it was the one I bought recently because of its proximity to where they were eating to where I saw him last.

Btw, I just read your sig, do you have lots of fry? And are you successful with them?

 

[GhostCon1]

Update:

Picked up the shell, the coloration from the shell made me thin the door was still intact. It wasn't shell is completely empty.

 

[SurrealSerenity]

I had a hermit crab eat my snail. The snail seemed healthy but one day it didn't move alot and then I saw my hermit crab digging it out and eating it. Then later my cleaner shrimp ate one of my hermit crabs. I assume the hermit crab was already dead? But I don't know I just walked in to see my shrimp ripping apart a hermit crab and eating some of it.

 

[onepoorreefer]

If they get hungry they will eat the snails just like a crab will

 

[TripleT]

Maybe it was really dirty.

Sorry.

Do you feed your shrimp? It seems wrong, but I target feed mine krill. And sometimes Hikari sinking pellets.

The latter works well because little bits float away while he picks at it, and my fish clean up the leftovers.

 

[GhostCon1]

Yes, I feed pellets to them, but lately the cleaners are going nuts on little bits of sea weed I put into the tank. Wierd because I thought they only ate meat.