What happened here? (warning graphic)

[Pea-brain]

Well, today I decided to check in on my G. chiragra, I shined a red-filter flahlight in his burrow and he isn't moving....And looks...disfigured. I remove the rock and I nearly throw up. I mean it looks nasty. At first I thought it was a molt skin, but he is in the only rock in the tank. The only tank inhabitants are a cerith snail he had yet to kill. It looks like he exploded or something. his parts are scattered, there is a little meat in the shell. I don't know what happened. If it is amolt skin he is not in the tank, I've checked everywhere, and I haven't seen him on the floor. He couldn't have been sitting there for more than 3 days since I last saw him. a failed molt maybe. anyways, here pics:

Any ideas?

 

[crazyaggie05]

Ouch, sorry to hear about that.... must have been a failed molt. That makes me nervous b/c mine just closed up her burrow and is molting I'm assuming.

 

[mattyice]

that is not a failed molt...a failed molt will keep the animal whole and it will stay like that for about 2 weeks, a dead animal at only about a week of being dead would lose just the gill filaments

 

[dragonforce]

Failed molt then another creature like a rogue crab or something probably got to it.

 

[justinl]

did it show any signs that it was about to molt? regardless, i would highly support the theory that it died first then hermits, crabs and snails took their revenge.

sorry to hear about the loss.

 

[Pea-brain]

like I said, nothing in there but a cerith snail. Not one other animal. I could immagine a hermit doing that though, but he killed the last one a while ago. He hadn't been eating lately though. I could've sworn I saw him not too long ago, his tail just sticking out the burrow. The I looked in yesterday or the day before I think and saw his pleopods, and they weren't moving so I thought it might be molting or something. He didn't bother to close up his burrow, despite having more than enough pebbles and stuff. I don't know how he got to that state though. I have trouble immagining a normal cerith snail could do that in 2-3 days. I'm going to look closely through the rocks and stuff and see if I can find a hermit crab or something.

Dan

 

[Pea-brain]

A small update. Upon closer inspection (AKA removal of corpse) It is more of a molt skin than it first seemed. It is severed in half where the telson meets the carapace. There is more meat in it than a molt skin should have though, and less meat than a recently deceased mantis shrimp should have. I looked thoroughly in the rock he burrowed under for something, but there was nothing in there. He is not in the tank, on the floor, or in any tank near his tank, or in the saltwater mixing bucket next to his tank. I need to go to bed now, but tomorrow I will check for the scavenging cerith and any hermits.

Dan

 

[Thurge]

Sorry to see that Dan. It looks just like how I lost my first mantis, Mjollnir. I have no idea what happened really. Is it possible you have a nassarius or two in the sand? It really looks like it has been picked appart by scavangers.

 

[Gonodactylus]

It is most likely a failed molt. Mattyice, if a gonodactylid dies during a molt, the new molt skin does not harden. As the animal rots, so does the soft exoskeleton. The result is that the animal literally falls apart. The presence of the old molt skin, or at least the harder parts that do not decompose rapidly, further confounds the picture.

Cees Hof (try Google Scholar) as part of Ph.D disseration, did several studies on the decomposition of stomatopods to determine how they are fossilized (taphonomy).

Roy

 

[Pea-brain]

O funk, this prink (inside joke. BTW you got red on you) of forum didn't let me post, so I gotta rewrite it.....Anyways, Thanks Dr. Roy That makes alot of sense. Bet they had to euthanize alot of mantises for that experiment. And I bet they don't fossilize well either
This has got me a bit worried though. I recently switched salt brands and my P ciliata has been acting very strange. It has holed up. I assumed it was molting, but it didn't. Then it started coming out once every few days, then everyday for about 3-4 days. He's been like this since I changed my salt brand about 4 weeks ago. In that whole time he's only eaten a maybe 3 small krill and a few bites of shrimp. Now he is holed up again. And there is a small hole into his burrow that is too small for himl. I'm afraid it might be a nass trying to get to a rotting meal.So anyone else using coralife brand salt? I heard it had high heavy metals according to a study a few years ago.I'm sorry but this has got me a bit freaked out.

Dan