Warning on Pep shrimp and snails

[Mark_C]

So, a while back I had a big aptasia outbreak, I picked up a couple of peppermint shrimp in hopes they would be effective, and they were, wiping the aptasia out in a week.
Then, 2 weeks back, I started having an algae problem, which is unusual as my considerable snail population (nassarius, trocus, astraea, cerith, bumblebee) keeps things in check.
Which led me to notice that I wasn't seeing as many snails as usual.
Last week I realized that exactly zero of my dozen or so nassarius seem to come up for food.
Last night I saw the 2 shrimp teaming up on of of my last surviving astraea.
This morning I shifted the tank from the wall and looked behind the rockwork to find the great snail shell graveyard.

Now I gotta get the little ^&%$s out of my tank. They did do a great job on the aptasia though.

 

[jgraz]

So, a while back I had a big aptasia outbreak, I picked up a couple of peppermint shrimp in hopes they would be effective, and they were, wiping the aptasia out in a week.
Then, 2 weeks back, I started having an algae problem, which is unusual as my considerable snail population (nassarius, trocus, astraea, cerith, bumblebee) keeps things in check.
Which led me to notice that I wasn't seeing as many snails as usual.
Last week I realized that exactly zero of my dozen or so nassarius seem to come up for food.
Last night I saw the 2 shrimp teaming up on of of my last surviving astraea.
This morning I shifted the tank from the wall and looked behind the rockwork to find the great snail shell graveyard.

Now I gotta get the little ^&%$s out of my tank. They did do a great job on the aptasia though.

Its possible that it may have been the shrimp as they are all opportunists(will turn on coral too) but I'd put that bumblebee or a crab of some sort as suspect #1
Bumble bee snails are predators.
As for the nassurius snails, they are not algae eaters, they are meat eaters and will eat dead snails.


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[Mark_C]

Meant that as a cleanup crew I had snails to cover most concerns (approx 40-50)
There's 1 emerald crab in there and 3 peppermints, the emerald has been in the tank 2 years.
The snail deaths (including at least 1 of the 2 bumblebees) began just after the introduced peppermints finished all the aptasia.
Catching them in the act of tearing up astreae and realizing they're 3 of the last inverts in my tank makes me point the guilty finger.