Peppermint shrimp assassin

[jason904]

added 3 peppermint shrimp yesterday because a piece of rock I got from LFS 2 days ago had 3 aiptasia anemones.

15 mins after the addition, the shrimp had a full red-legged hermit out of his shell and were eating his dead body. The meaty "foot" that holds the crab in shell was attached so I know it was a crab and not a molt.

I did not see the murder take place but, I suspect they killed him, any thoughts?

The only other inhabitants are some various CUC crabs, 4 chromis .
:bounce3:

 

[beaglemom]

I can sympathize, I recently added several peppermint shrimp to my tank for the same reason and they beat up a mandarin until he died and then started eating him.

 

[jason904]

you win beaglemom, I lost a $2 crab, I think I will put a lid on my complaining. I have never heard of the shrimpys killing critters, but I guess is it possible

 

[SDahmer]

Opportunistic feeders.

 

[mndfreeze]

My skunk cleaner chases my sexy shrimp away from his station. I could see it escalating if the sexies were sick and couldnt teleport hop as fast as they normally do.

Sometimes even teh benign pets can be killers. Just rare.

 

[IPowderBlueTang]

I have had peps attack their own, when one is molting and have witness this first hand. Usually when they are in groups, they gang up on the weaker one. They are opportunistic feeders and will kill their own.

 

[Penguintheory]

I have been lucky I added 4 peps to take care of aptasia and my fire shrimp has killed 3 as of today in the last week.

 

[jason904]

oh, my terrorists killed 5 known aptasia overnight! I thought it would take a week or so! So far, no more dead bodies, I suspect they were hungry from the LSF, there were a lot of them in the tank, so they probably needed some chow. They are eating brine shrimp so I think the hermits are probably safe, but they do look a little worried.