Shrimp death ... who dunnit?

[RAYNOR]

After months of stellar health and happiness, my shrimp (cleaner) was dead in only a few short hours yesterday. I really want to blame an extremely evil damsel (which I saw tormenting him in his last moments). The only other suspect I have would be the hermit crabs. There was absolutely no change in water parameters...

Any guesses as to who to blame? BETTER YET, any advice on how to remove unwanted fish without tearing down all my rockwork & corals?

 

[jdeets]

I would really doubt that a damsel would be able to kill a shrimp.

It is possible that the shrimp tried to molt unsuccessfully. Sometimes that causes their untimely demise.

Cleaner shrimp, as you know, can move really fast when threatened. I think a hermit would starve before it could catch and kill a cleaner shrimp.

I would guess it was a bad molt that killed it. The suspects you identify are not too likely to have been the cause of your shrimp's demise.

If you want to get the damsel out, use a fish trap. Do a search on RDO and you should find lots of threads on it.

 

[fyrefysh]

I agree with jdeets, damsels and hermits would not be able to kill a shrimp. I would suspect your water parameters. Can you post your water parameters?