Newbie here! With a skunk cleaner shrimp Q.

[Pauly]

Hey all,
Paul here, I'm new to the site.... And fish keeping so bare with me and my probably silly questions. Anyway here goes, I got a small 90litre tank about a month ago, got the cleaner crew in which are, 1 cleaner shrimp, 3 blue legged hermits, 3 snails ( which I can't remember the type), sand sifter star, emerald crab. Then in the last week or so I put in 2 common clown fish and a toadstool.

Everyone has been getting on grand, but today I come home from work and notice 2 of the hermits start to fight ( I would image the smaller one started it as it wanted the larger ones shell ) anyway the smaller one comes out of his shell to continue his seige on the larger guy when out of nowhere the shrimp swoops in n eats him!! Is this normal? Or will I soon have a murderous shrimp on my hands? He's been a dote until now... Swims to the glass when anyones in the room n generally placid.

 

[Droskie20]

welcome to the site, and first thing first get rid of the sand star....and 2 you should go to the lfs and buy empty shells to avoid fights and as far as the cleaner shrimp. your good they are all peaceful just remember to feed him or what happened will probably happen again.

 

[Northstar24]

I've never heard of a cleaner shrimp going after a healthy crab. My guess is it was on its way out when the shrimp decided to make a snack of it.

As has already been stated, a sand sifting star will most likely starve in a system of your size, they need very large, established sand beds to survive long term in captivity

Welcome to the site!

 

[FishyReef]

Did the shrimp eat the smaller one or the larger one? Are you sure its a skunk cleaner shrimp that you have?

 

[Smitty]

Hello and welcome to the site...glad to have you aboard.

 

[Pauly]

Thanks for the reply guys!

I have 4 ( now 5 with the dead crab ) shells just lying around the tank, and he grabbed the smaller one who had come out of his shell.. I don't think the crab was sick as I seen them walk over to each other,

And I'm pretty sure it's a skunk, pale underside, red top with a white strip all along the back and 4 dots around the tail also?

Will the starfish be ok until I upgrade to a 200ish litre in a few months?

My local lfs is this guy Home - Seahorse Aquariums Ltd
I was told he's pretty much the guy to go to for fish.

 

[foxymoxy]

Getting a bigger tank will help the starfish but than you will have problem of food...you cannot feed a starfish so it must hunt for its own food...what I have learned is that you need to have a tank up and running for a very LONG time to be able establish a sand bed with lots of food...plus you also have crabs and shrimp also sifting through the sand for food also

 

[Northstar24]

Thanks for the reply guys!



Will the starfish be ok until I upgrade to a 200ish litre in a few months?

I've got a ~700 Litre tank that has been running for almost two years and I don't trust my sand bed to have enough food in it for a sand sifting star

 

[little_fish]

Hello and Welcome!

You should always take the advice of a LFS with a grain of salt because they are there to sell you stuff. It is much better for their bottom line if they sell you something that isnt suited to your aquarium, it dies and you go back and buy another one. No one on here is going to make money off of you and it is in our best interest for you and aquarium to succeed.

 

[Ulta]

Yup, I had a sand star for almost a year in a decent sized tank and I kept switching him from my Display to my Sump and he still slowly perished... =(

 

[chichimom79]

Welcome aboard, Pauly! They have you covered :D

 

[Pauly]

Thanks for the advice,
I'll look into trading in the sifter.... Is there another creature I can get to clean the sand that would be good with the sized tank I have?

Also I'm guessing from the calm replies I'm in no danger of the shrimp starting to eat things in the tank?

 

[little_fish]

Nassarius snails are great at taking care of the sand bed, i would get 5 or so.