[lyohemas]

Last night when the lights were out I noticed one of my shrimps bothering my bta. Could the shrimp be trying to eat the anemone? Should I remove the shrimp? I would hate to have to remove them because they are working really well at keeping the aptasia in check.

[Ninong]

I don't know what size your anemone is relative to the shrimp, but it's more likely that the anemone might eat the shrimp rather than the other way around. What the shrimp might be doing is trying to get food away from the anemone.

[lyohemas]

The shrimp is small and the anemone is 4-5 inch diameter. Your comment puts me at ease, I was kind of wondering if it could eat the shrimp.

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by lyohemas

The shrimp is small and the anemone is 4-5 inch diameter. Your comment puts me at ease, I was kind of wondering if it could eat the shrimp.

Yes, the anemone could eat the shrimp. It may not but it's possible. I doubt that the shrimp will eat the anemone.

We have a thread on this board in which one of our members reported that his anemone ate his blue ringed octopus. I'll see if I can find that thread for you. It was pretty funny to most of us reading about it but the topic starter didn't seem amused. That was his second blue ringed octopus. The first one escaped the tank into his room!

P.S. -- We may have lost that particular thread in one of the early software upgrades. It was a long time ago but we all remember it VERY well. Well, some of us do. The thread was three pages long and it was hilarious. The anemone survived eating the blue ringed octopus, believe it or not. The topic starter was asking us if we thought his anemone would get sick and die or not. When we asked him why he had a blue ringed octopus in his reef tank, he told us it was because the first one escaped and this was his second attempt at keeping one. He was serious. It wasn't a joke thread.

P.P.S. -- We have definitely lost that thread because I just checked that member's profile and even though he has a total of 205 posts, only 12 posts come up when you search for all of his posts. I think we lost most of the posts that were made during the first 17 months or so. At least I can't find any of them.

[lyohemas]

That is crazy, was he aware of how dangerous they are?

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by lyohemas

That is crazy, was he aware of how dangerous they are?

Probably. We certainly did our best to cite all the medical literature and explain the risks. I believe he concluded that he wouldn't bother getting another one but that was mostly due to the fact that he had had bad luck with the first two.

[Chubosco]

If I was to bet, my money would be on the fact the blue was already dead before the shrimp started to sample it. Same with bristle worms, always the bad guys caught in the act of eating something already dead and blamed for the death.

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by Chubosco

If I was to bet, my money would be on the fact the blue was already dead before the shrimp started to sample it.

Nobody said anything about a shrimp eating a blue ringed octopus. It was an anemone that ate the blue ringed octopus and both were very much alive at the time. The event was witnessed by the aquarist, much to his horror!

[Chubosco]

I could not have watched. The horror.