I was blaming my shark but another crab died last night and my shark was in my refugium. The only thing that I can think of is the Peppermint. Do they stalk and kill?

Thx for the info.

To my knowledge, there are two kinds of Peppermint Shrimp.  If you have the Camel type (with the hump in their back), they are preditory.  The regular ones are not preditory.  Again, this is only from what I've read, no personal experience with Peppermints.

Maybe you're hermits are dying from some other cause and the shrimp/shark are just opertunistic feeders.

Is the temperature high?  IME, hermits are the first to die from hot water.

80 deg is the hottest it gets. I think I figured it out. I think my blue damsel is doing it. So, he got flushed. Not before I ripped my whole tank apart trying to catch him. I won't put one of those in my tank again! There are no other predators in the tank if the peppermint is friendly. He is the "real" version, not the camelback peppermint.

Besides, 4 hermits in two days was a little fishy..... I haven't had a hermit die yet from cooking. This tank is a year old. I think the damsel found a new way to snack and the hermit were the victims.

utahtaper,

It's been a couple weeks now.......Have you found any more dead hermits?

I found a couple dead hermits today on the bottom of my tank in a cave.  I have 3 peppermints, 1 cleaner, 2 green chromis, 1 purple tang, and other hermits.

2 of the peppermints were hanging out under that rock today, but I suspect they're just picking at them as Jon suggested.

I got the hermits as part of an order of Reef Janitors from GARF, and the instructions mentioned that hermits will attack snails and other hermits for their shells, especially after being introduced into a new environment ( I added them on Tuesday).  I put some empty shells in there after adding the janitors, but that's still my #1 explanation.  Does that sound right?

-Tom

Hi Tom,

To tell you the truth.... And I'm a little embarrased.... But what I thought was my hermits being murdered was probably only them shedding their skin.  It's possible that yours are doing the same thing. The exoskeleton they shed look exactly like the original crab(Colors and all) except they shed the skeleton from the stomach forward. When the peppermint sheds, the skin is white and it's the whole body.  I read a ton on Peppermints when I suspected they were the "Real Killers" but only to find they are just about the most peaceful shrimp you could possibly put on your tank. So I guess I'll keep searching for the "Real Killers".

But  there hasn't been any other carcasses in my tank lately.

Jason

Ah Hah....That does make sense!  There's no way I could get an accurate count of the number of hermits in my tank with all the rock-work, but I bet you're right.  I really don't have any predators in my tank.