What happened to my cleaner shrimp????

[beeguiles]

Came home from work to find my cleaner shrimp on the sand dead.. Looks like he had molted and the something ruptured out of his body? He was healthy and had just ate just before I left for work so I have no idea what happened. Here are some pics.

This initially what I saw when I got home. You can see the rupture in the reflection of the glass

 

[AllReady]

Oh weird. I wonder if something attacked him while he was still soft.

 

[Smitty]

Sorry to hear that...but it's kinda common for shrimps to die when they are molting. I think it has something to do with an iron deficiency.

 

[Northstar24]

It almost looks like some sort of bad molt or something, that's really odd

 

[chichimom79]

Poor shrimpy :(

 

[baeya]

So sad.....poor little guy.

 

[beeguiles]

I talked to my lfs and they said it was a parasite that only attacks shrimp. :( some kind of worm I think. Just my luck

 

[Neno reefs]

Parasitic Isopod on cleaner shrimp... - Reef Central Online Community

Hope you got that thing out of there,

 

[beeguiles]

Yes I did remove it from the tank. He was dead and gone so no point in keeping him in there lol