# Killer Shrimps?



## SPECIAL||PLANS (May 27, 2009)

i am interested to see if anyone think its the shrimp doing this.


----------



## Axelrodi202 (Jul 29, 2008)

It could be them.


----------



## resowner92 (Jul 23, 2007)

I know that shrimp will eat dead bodies but idk about killing a fish


----------



## Scipio (Feb 18, 2008)

Can you post a pic of the shrimps? If they are ghost shrimps there is really no chance that they could kill an angel fish of that size. I would be more worried about the angel fish later on eating the ghosts. But ghost shrimps a scavengers and will jump at the chance to eat a dead fish. But if its not a ghost shrimp and something else then it is possible but a pic would help a lot to really ID the shrimps. 

If you just started stocking your tank take into account the stress that fish go through. How long have the angels been at the LFS? or did you receive them by mail? A good practice is not to buy any fish from a LFS unless they had at least a week to stabilize. Take all these things and then add the fact as you have mentioned that angels are aggressive and have the others bully the weaker and eventually it will lead to a death.


----------



## feiyang (Jan 25, 2008)

what shrimps are they?


----------



## blackandyellow (Jul 1, 2009)

I promise to post a pic of the shrimp. they were sold as ghost shrimp. I actually saw one trying to nip one of the angels with its claw.

The thing that´s very strange is that it happened overnight and angels are not nocturnal. I also checked and even though there´s still 10 neons, one has a chopped tail


----------



## GhostShrimpBoo (Mar 8, 2009)

Ghost Shrimp pics:


----------



## thief (Jan 12, 2008)

I seriously doubt 4 ghosts shrimp with them being the matter of 1-2inchs can ever process eating almost whole angel fish. How big was the angel?

I just can't see it happening. I may be wrong though...


----------



## fibertech (Apr 29, 2009)

I have ghosts in a fry tank that look like the top pic and they have never bothered anybody. They run from everybody


----------



## flanders (May 3, 2008)

How long has the tank been set up? Is it cycled?


----------



## A Hill (Jul 25, 2005)

Well if you actually got a macro shrimp species it is possible.

Much more likely that the fish died from stress or something and then the shrimp were cleaning up the body. Then you walk in on them and they are pinned for the death.

Maybe your angles are just pansies?
-Andrew


----------



## Vladdy (May 6, 2008)

GhostShrimpBoo said:


> Ghost Shrimp pics:


The second one looks like a red cherry shrimp


----------



## blackandyellow (Jul 1, 2009)

Hi all, here are pics of the offenders... 

























Unfortunately 3 more neons fell victim to them on friday. The angel that was killed was a small baby, less than one inch tall, fins included. Tank is new, just finished cycling it and the shrimp together with the angels and neons were the first inhabitants.

I took the shrimp out on saturday. No more casualties since then...


----------



## Strick (Apr 6, 2009)

Pretty sure that's a Red Clawed Shrimp... never seen a ghost shrimp with claws like that...

Red Claws get about 3 times the size of regular ghost shrimp, but I haven't heard of them taking down a live fish. I'd suspect your fish are dying for some other reason and the shrimp are just just being good scavengers.


----------



## blackandyellow (Jul 1, 2009)

Here´s one more pic:


----------



## macclellan (Dec 22, 2006)

Your fish are dying and the shrimp are eating the dead bodies. Neons and angels are pretty sensitive when you first get them.

Have you tested ammonia & nitrites?


----------



## blackandyellow (Jul 1, 2009)

Yes, both test zero. I cycled the tank fishless with my little res turtle and got the fish after ammonia and nitrites tested zero. I actually caught the shrimp in action, so I have no doubt they were attacking (two other angels survived the attack with torned fins). With the neons it´s very probable they died off and got eaten. 

I substituted the shrimp with 4 little happy corys!


----------



## Strick (Apr 6, 2009)

I hope you returned the shrimp instead of just disposing of them. The store where you bought them has them mislabeled. They should know...


----------



## A Hill (Jul 25, 2005)

Yes those don't look to be what most people here call ghost shrimp (american glass shrimp) those seem to be a type of macro...

Ghost shrimp is just a general name for a variety of clear shrimp which are sold unIDed so they aren't mislabling anything.

-Andrew


----------



## blackandyellow (Jul 1, 2009)

Yes, I took them back to the LFS and traded for the 4 corys. Told them they were very aggressive. They just told me "ya... we know" and I said: then you should let people know before selling them...


----------



## GhostShrimpBoo (Mar 8, 2009)

Vladdy said:


> The second one looks like a red cherry shrimp


I think you're right. Now that I look at it, it does look like a male cherry. I'll be more careful the next time I use stuff from Google images. :icon_wink




blackandyellow said:


> Hi all, here are pics of the offenders...


I can't believe they sold that as a ghost shrimp. That reminds me of a prawn I saw at a local LFS a month ago.


----------



## fibertech (Apr 29, 2009)

That thing is really big


----------



## lbsfarms (Jan 30, 2003)

I had the same thing happen with ghost shrimp and baby angel fish. Ghost shrimp will eat small fish.


----------



## blackandyellow (Jul 1, 2009)

The largest one was around 5cm long. I´m so happy they´re gone! the corys look great and seem to be very happy. The problem is that I only got 4 and probably going to get a couple or 4 more to have a nice school


----------



## alohamonte (Jul 25, 2006)

In the pic above, it looks like the shrimp is perched claws forward in a hunting/ambush position... exactly like a crayfish I used to have. Good thing you got rid of them.


----------



## anh (Jul 20, 2009)

they have these exact same shrimp at my local petsmart, they're label as gost shrimp as well.


----------



## Superinc (Aug 2, 2009)

ghost shrimp will eat very small fry , or a dead/dying fish .


think your fish died of cycling /bioload issues,

(healthy)angles swim mid/top level , as where shrimps are mostly at the bottom.
must have been dying.

I have [email protected] ghost shrimp in 10gal with small guppys , they can slip through shrimps cawls, but a dead fish will be left to bones in less than a day.


----------



## Veneer (Jan 18, 2005)

Superinc said:


> think your fish died of cycling /bioload issues.


The OP's shrimp weren't regular ghost shrimp (by this I mean one of a few species of North American _Palaemonetes_, namely _P. paludosus_). They were definitely some sort of _Macrobrachium_ (maybe not even fully grown) and, while these certainly would scavenge fish carcasses, it's quite likely that they did hunt down and kill the angelfish.


----------

