MIA? Mystery surrounding Hermits and Shrimp

[johnnyoc]

Hello

My tank is a 125l that will soon reach its first birthday. Over the last year I've lost many of hermits, snails and a peppermint and a cleaner shrimp.
At first I thought that the turbo snails had all fallen off unable to right themselves and died. But now, I've not a single snail or hermit left, I'm starting to wonder if there is a butcher hiding out in there.

I know I have several smallish bristleworms - possibly larger ones I'm not aware of could they be responsible??

If not, what else? I have small mounds of dust-like detritus that appear outside holes in rock - this i assume is the worms waste or is it another critter?

I hope to put a bottle trap in tomorrow eve with some food in to see what I can tempt in overnight. I really want more hermits and snails to control waste/algae but at the moment I'm too scared to put them in as they simply don't last.

Any advice would be appreciated!

 

[PJsea]

What livestock do you have in the tank?

 

[FinalPhaze987]

hows your water quality? what are your nutrient levels at? pH? Ca? kH? and what type of filtration are you using?

 

[cindre2000]

What livestock do you have, and do you hear any clicking day or night?

 

[johnnyoc]

Ive only 2 clowns at the moment.
I've got a skimmer (redsea), po4 is virtually 0 as lots of macro algae. KH is 140 (I think from memory). PH I've recently raised to 8.1 ish. Not too sure on Ca.

As for clicking - I've thought of that as had heard some suspect noises very very irregularly. However I've not witnessed anything or heard anything for a long time.

I'll try a bottle trap this eve and see if anyone turns up - any suggestions for bait?

 

[PJsea]

Try a piece of raw shrimp or clam as bait

 

[johnnyoc]

Hm, nothing in the traps this morning - not even a bristleworm...

 

[WRASSER]

how big is the hermit 8O

 

[johnnyoc]

Hermit?? Not got any.

I'm going to get a few snails this eve to see how they fare. 3 nights of bait and stakeouts have produced nothing so fingers crossed.

 

[WRASSER]

sorry, didnt think they all died. any luck on trapping it?

 

[WRASSER]

oh and how is the salinity

 

[johnnyoc]

Hm, new hermits are all fine. After over a week of test bait, all hermits fine and no suspicious noises/movment I decided to go for it and add a little cleaner once again. Come morning there was no evidence of him at all - that was over a week ago now.

Any other suggestions? I can't find any evidence of a culprit - except no for disappearing cleaner shrimp.
Is it worth investing in a pistol shrimp/mantis trap??