Peps and Skunk Shrimp

[Ekudl]

Uggh, I just added a skunk cleaner shrimp to my tank today at a cost of $18 and a couple hours later I see that it has been killed by my Peppermint Shrimps. I should of realized when I purchased it I noticed there was an exoskeleton in the tank so it must of just molted and thus left himself vulnerable.

Is this probably the case ? Has this happened to anyone before ? Can different Shrimps live together peacefully.

[mapster]

Could be the case, but it may be the pep's just cleaning up the remains.

How big was the skunk compared to the pep's?

Shrimp can be very sensetive to changes in salinity, how did you acclimate it, it may not have made it through the acclimation.

When I first acclimated my cleaner it seemed very weak for a few days, the peps, or something else may have taken advantage of that.

[MontanaRocknReefer]

I have had cleaner shrimp and a coral banded shrimp in a 72 bow front and having deciding territory issues they co-existed with each other. Cleaner shrimp can be kept in small groups while coral banded shrimp will kill one another unless a bonded pair or you get lucky! These are the only two I have kept so others may respond with other species of shrimp! Johnny

[Ekudl]

I thank you for your responses. The Skunk was about the same size as the Peps were. I purchased the Shrimp at Petco. Do I have any remorse from them despite everyone advertising "No warrenty for Saltwater Fish"

[Rick O]

Usually they'll hide for a couple days after molting but being in a new tank it may not have staked out a safe haven yet.

I'm prone to think it may have been an acclimation issue. Lately I've made a habit of checking the water parameters of the LFS water when I make a purchase. I might even go so far as to take a water sample from my tank to the LFS when making a purchase of a sensitive species. It's not that I'm unsure about my water but I want to compare it to the water that the specemin has been living in.