Who Killed my Shrimp?

[ZaSheik]

I have a 20 gallon Fish only tank with two small clowns and a sea hare. I have app. 25lbs of live rock and a 4in. sand bed. I also have a HOB protein skimmer with the pump and return covered in sponge and two powerheads that are also covered. I just lost my other hare three weeks ago because he got sucked up.. Just now I was looking at my tank and recognized that I could not find by Cleaner Shrimp so i began looking between my stacked stable stacked rocks and noticed him torn to to pieces buried a little bit in the sand.

He never really cleaned the fish because they never interacted because he loved to hide under the rocks most of the time so I highly doubt it was them. He has cleaned the hare when the hare has came towards his rock and the hare never showed any interest in him. I have seen a couple or serpent stars at night, but i dont think they could have done that kind of damage. Am i wrong or has something else hitch hiked into my tank without me knowing??

[Original Fin]

You sure it wasn't a molt that you found? If it was a hidden hitchhiker, I'd be looking for a crab, or a mantis shrimp. Ever hear clicking/snapping?

A sea hare couldn't do it. I don't think a serpent star would have attacked a cleaner shrimp, but it might tear it apart if it was already dead, which begs the question...how is your water quality?
You're calling your system a fish only, but in order to succesfully keep inverts like you've got, you should have reef quality water. How often/how much water do you change, what's your salinity & temp? What do your nitrates and phos measure?

[ZaSheik]

My water quality is awesome. I test my water once a week and the Phosphates, Nitrites, Nitrates, and Ammonia are always at 0, PH is at 8.2, sal/gravity is at 1.024, and temp is 74. I constantly top of my tank with RO/DI and do a 50% water change every two/ three weeks to keep the water looking nice and not necessarily become it needs to be changed. I dont overfeed and always scoop out what they dont need. I feed flakes and brine shrimp and actually fed the shrimp out of a turkey baster haha.

I saw something poking out my another rock today, but i thought it was just another serpent star..and I have not heard any snapping or clicking. IF it is a crab, how do i find it and get it out of my tank?

[Original Fin]

My water quality is awesome. I test my water once a week and the Phosphates, Nitrites, Nitrates, and Ammonia are always at 0, PH is at 8.2, sal/gravity is at 1.024, and temp is 74. I constantly top of my tank with RO/DI and do a 50% water change every two/ three weeks to keep the water looking nice and not necessarily become it needs to be changed. I dont overfeed and always scoop out what they dont need. I feed flakes and brine shrimp and actually fed the shrimp out of a turkey baster haha.

I saw something poking out my another rock today, but i thought it was just another serpent star..and I have not heard any snapping or clicking. IF it is a crab, how do i find it and get it out of my tank?

Make a trap out of a small plastic water bottle. Weight the bottom down with sand rubble, place some bait inside. Silversides work great. Cut a 3x3" "X" in the side halfway or more up the body of the bottle. Fold the bottom flap outwards to make an ingress ramp...lean this against the rock structure. Fold the other three flaps in. They can get in, but they can't climb back out. Place in the tank at bedtime.

It took me exactly 8 hrs to catch my unwanted xanthid crab using this method. You can/will catch both invited and uninvited guests this way.

[leebca]

Everyone likes the idea of a sea hare. And they perform a great function in the home aquarium. However, they can emit a poison to the water which you can't test for. Should the hare die, it will kill off the tank.

The 20 gallon tank is too small for two Anemonefishes, which due to the deep sand and live rock has very little room left for actual water.

For sizing fishes you should read through this post: Fish Stocking Limit - for FO and FOWLR

With regards to the dead shrimp. . .If you're sure it is the shrimp itself, then look for a hitchhiker in your tank as others have suggested.

[ZaSheik]

It has been two nights now that I have attempted this trick and It has not worked for me. I have found the rock that he is dwelling on, and sure enough it is right where I found my shrimp. He comes out every night, but never more than halfway out his rock. And as soon as I approach the Tank he crawls back in. Any ideas?

[ZaSheik]

I believe this a myth on the sea hares. As I mentioned in my first post, I lost my other Hare about three weeks previous. I assume he was cleaning the powerhead that was leading to my protein skimmer and he got sucked up, for lack of better terms, into it. The powerhead has an attachment so this wouldnt happen, and in honesty, I have no idea how he did it because the attachment had tiny slits but he did. To say the least, I left for my house one morning and when i came back 3 hours later he was dead. My tank was still sound and I removed him pronto. Here is a post I found on the subject.. The Sea Slug Forum - Is Sea Hare ink poisonous to fish?

[FoMoCo Master Tech]

I've read that some sea hares are poisonous and some are not. Depends on the species but I don't know much more about them. Makes sense to me...