Ghost shrimp eating eachother?

[Natty_Bear]

So, I have a very small tank, 1.5 gallons, with 4 ghost shrimp in them. As of last night I have 4, this morning however, I looked in my tank and saw the largest of them, Miss Piggy, eating the still moving body of the smallest one, Edgar. That was pretty ugly . So I took what was left of him out (no head or upper body, just his little legs kicking) and gave him a 'burial at sea'. Then looking for my other shrimps, I could only find one, the larger female, but not my other little male, which was bigger than Edgar.

So obviously they will eat anything they find, but LIVE shrimp? and two in one day? Is this normal or some type of freaky mating ritual like a preying mantis? They did have some food in there too, so there was not 'reason' for it to happen. Im just kind of wondring if i get a few more if this will keep happening until one of the is bigger than Miss Piggy and eats her or something.

 

[Mebbid]

Could they have died and gotten eaten that way? Nerves can make body parts twitch for quite a while so that might be a possibility. Also, are you sure that it was a full shrimp rather than just the molted exoskeleton? The bits can move with water flow and look like a complete shrimp. They hide very well right after they molt so their new skin can harden up.

What are the parameters of your tank?
What is your water change schedule?

Lastly, if they are eating each other I would imagine it's from lack of space.

 

[Natty_Bear]

Im sure it was a full shrimp because there are not many places to hide in the tank, and I can not find 2 of them. They molted about 2 days ago and the molts got taken out, so Im sure that they were both eaten.

What do you mean by 'parameters', im new to this and dont know much about it, if your talking PH and nitrate levels, I dont have any information because its so small, I just let the shrimp and snail take care of the waste and change the filter regularly.

The water change is about 20% or less every week and a half or so.

They have been in this tank for quite some time, they all had their own little 'territories' and they have a place they go to eat the carrot I put in there for the snail. They were all pretty peaceful.

 

[Mebbid]

Parameter referrs to ammo.ia, nitrite, and nitrate in the tank. If you are changing your filter regularly I am betting there is a buildup of ammonia in the tank that could have killed your shrimp. Firstly, I would start changing out 50% weekly as opposed to a smaller amount as that will pull out more of the contaminants. Next you should stop changing your filter because it resets your cycle pulling out the bacteria that consume ammonia and nitrate.

Try pulling about a cup of tank water out and take it to your lfs to have them test it for you. They will tell you what your ammonia level is.

 

[ClearVision94]

Ghost shrimp can be aggressive to each other if there isn't much space. Do you have a lid on your tank because they will jump out. Females don't kill males after mating. I'm gonna go with bad water quality on this. They produce very little waste so you don't have to change water often