Killer Cleaner Shrimp

[Gauge]

I bought a tuxedo urchin recently. It seemed to do fine for the first couple of days. It was picking things up and carrying them around like normal. After a couple days I walk in one morning and find him on the sand in the shadow of a rock. The cleaner shrimp was digging on him, but I didn't think much of it. After about half an hour I looked again and saw the same scene. Out of curiosity I picked up the urchin and had a look on him. Sure enough there was a spot about the size of a dime on his side with no spines... right where the shrimp had been digging. By the end of the day he was dead.

I figured it wasn't entirely fair to assume the shrimp did this, so I just shrugged it off. However, a couple days ago I bought a feather duster and a mushroom rock. I was shocked when I saw the cleaner shrimp start eating the feather duster! So, I took the duster out. Then, just now, I saw him trying to eat my decorator crab! What is the deal?? Do I have the cleaner shrimp from hell or are they all like this??

I'm going to take him up to the store as soon as I manage to catch him, but I'm thinking about getting a peppermint shrimp to replace him. Should be expect the same behavoir out of it?

 

[reefer]

i dont know what to tell you, I keep 5 peppermint, 2 skunk cleaners, 2 blood red cleaners, and a and a coral banded shrimp. None of them have given me any trouble except the coral banded harasses the other shrimp every once in a while. I dont keep urchins, but i do have a feather duster, and they havent bothered it. Best of luck.

Reefer

 

[Guest]

I would say that it would not be possible for a cleaner shrimp to remove the spines off of an urchin.. Urchins lose spines when they are stressed and or sick... When they lose spines, it is not a good sign.. I think the cleaner may have been doing some eating of parasites off of the urchin or something of that nature... Not killing it...

 

[cj10488]

I would say that it would not be possible for a cleaner shrimp to remove the spines off of an urchin.. Urchins lose spines when they are stressed and or sick... When they lose spines, it is not a good sign..

Urchins also loose spines do to poor Water Quality such as High nitrates being the number one Cause.. One thing that I must say is that If the urchin dies in the tank it will most likely poison then entire tank..

What are your Water Quality levels such as ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH, Sg

James

 

[jamal-188]

One thing that I must say is that If the urchin dies in the tank it will most likely poison then entire tank..


James

I've never head/read that urchins can poision your tank, not saying your wrong but I've never heard that?

 

[cj10488]

I've never head/read that urchins can poision your tank, not saying your wrong but I've never heard that?

I cant remember where I read that. I might be incorrect as I have read hundreds if not thousands of articles and books on just about everything over the last six months.. I am pretty positive about that but not 100% as I cannot remember where I read it at.. As for them loosing spines It is most always water Quality/Stress that causes this.. I have/had a pencil urchin in my tank when I got the LR but I havent seen him for a few months since he decided to move on me..

James

 

[Gauge]

Thanks for the replies.

The water conditions are pretty normal...

Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 10
pH: 8.2

I've lost an urchin to bad water before, and there is a big difference here... The spines were ALL gone in one specific area and the rest of the spines on the urchin were all intact. They weren't even thinning in any other spot.

I'm not so concerned about the urchin as I am about the feather duster, though. I think the fact that no one seems to have had that problem would indicate I have an unusual cleaner shrimp.

Any other input?

 

[jamal-188]

Your levels seem good, how did you go about acclimating them? Most inverts are very sensitive to water changes.

 

[HoopsGuru]

Just to be sure we aren't talking about a different shrimp, are you referring to the skunk cleaner shrimp, Lysmata amboinensis?

A good writeup is available here as well:
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/hippolytidae.htm

Other fish such as peppermint shrimp and others are commonly called "cleaner shrimps" but can be aggressive to feather dusters, etc.

 

[Gauge]

Jamal:

I acclimated with an air line drip for 45 minutes.


HoopsGuru:

That's exactly it. Sorry, I didn't realize they had another name. At the LFS's here, they are always just labeled "Cleaner Shrimp."

 

[Gauge]

So, you're saying that both skunk cleaner shrimp and peppermint shrimp are likely to eat a feather duster? I've never heard that, but I don't think I've seen them kept together in stores, now that I think about it. They both seem like common, obvious reef inhabitants.