What is eating my snails and shrimp?

[~Flighty~]

Any ideas what to do here? My shrimp are slowly dissapearing. I've lost a bunch of pepermints (I thought they were canabalising) and now one of the skunk cleaners is gone. I'm finding snail shells at an alarming rate too.

I don't have any livestock that could do it, maybe a hitchhiker crab hiding somewhere? No mantis clicks BTW.

What could I do to find and catch the culprit?

 

[wsonner]

Any ideas what to do here? My shrimp are slowly dissapearing. I've lost a bunch of pepermints (I thought they were canabalising) and now one of the skunk cleaners is gone. I'm finding snail shells at an alarming rate too.

I don't have any livestock that could do it, maybe a hitchhiker crab hiding somewhere? No mantis clicks BTW.

What could I do to find and catch the culprit?

You have any hermits who needed bigger shells?? I notice my snails disappearing and reappearing with blue legs sometimes.

 

[~Flighty~]

I find the empty shells and it isn't just the hermit homeish ones. the tent shape ones are scooped clean too.

 

[dad300]

Cindy,
I know that on one of the rocks that I got from you I have a hitchiker crab. white and hairy. I haven't seen him do anything wrong yet so I'm leaving him. I imagine that you have at least a couple hitchhikers in the rock. My crabs carapace is only about the size of a dime. I would place bets on a crab

 

[~Flighty~]

I'm guessing a crab too. I've seen a little dime size one with black tips on its claws, but nothing else. Doesn't meen that there isn't a daddy crab somewhere though.

How do I try to get rid of it/them?

 

[Fingolfin]

Any ideas what to do here? My shrimp are slowly dissapearing. I've lost a bunch of pepermints (I thought they were canabalising) and now one of the skunk cleaners is gone. I'm finding snail shells at an alarming rate too.

I don't have any livestock that could do it, maybe a hitchhiker crab hiding somewhere? No mantis clicks BTW.

What could I do to find and catch the culprit?

Have you introduced some wrasse lately?

My Mystic wrasse eats crustacians like there's no tomorrow.

 

[Mr. Slippery]

I have a hairy crab as well and he always kills snails. I find the shells stacked up empty and broken from him crushing them. I've tried catching him a bunch of times to no avail. He's a mean looking guy too, at least 1 1/2"

 

[Moe_K]

try the jar trap for crabs.
get a clean empty glass jar.
at night, put it in the tank right-side up so it fills w/ water.
put some table shrimp in the bottom of the jar as bait.
stack rock next to the jar so the crabs can climb up and crawl to the lip of the jar.
the crabs will fall in and not be able to get out of the jar.
in the morning remove the jar and return good hermits.

or you could just be a flashlight hunter and skewer the crab with a stick. i did that.

 

[etszoo]

If you catch him Cindy, I'll throw him in my fuge tonight.

 

[~Flighty~]

Just the fish in my sig, nothing that would eat stuff. I did just add a 1/2 inch neon goby, maybe it's him.

 

[tmorsey]

I have a similar problem. I have 2 large Serpent Stars that I think are the culprits. Has anyone experienced Serpent Stars eating snails and/or shrimp?

 

[~Flighty~]

No starfish in my tank bigger than a dime that I know of. I do suspect my copperbanded is biting the tenticles of the snails, but I wouldn't think that it would kill them.