stocking shrimp

Question
Hi Jennifer: I have a 55 gallon tank stocked with: 1 blue tang, 1 flame angel, 1 six line wrasse, 1 spotted cardinal, 1 pink sea cucumber, 1 coral banded shrimp, 2 peppermint shrimp and a lot of blue legged crabs and turbo snails.  I had a Diamond Watchman Gobie but a few days ago it suddenly died (no idea why). I am considering getting another gobie, a scarlet skunk cleaner shrimp (the wrasse ate my last one) and a deep red fire shrimp. Am I in danger of over stocking with shrimp?  Also, any ideas as to why my gobie died? Last, I've been feeding the fish much more since the wrasse ate my cleaner shrimp, will this help minimize the likelihood of the wrasse eating another shrimp? Any other suggestions on how to minimize the likelihood of the wrasse eating my shrimp?

Answer
Hi Carl. I would not say that you are over stocking your tank with shrimp except for the fact that you have them with a coral banded shrimp! This shrimp will prey upon other shrimps, snails, hermit crabs and almost all worms. It is not recommended that you have this shrimp with the others and I am afraid it is just a matter of time before the coral banded will start going after your other shrimp!   (I would suspect that it wasn't the little six line wrasse that ate your last cleaner shrimp although both these animals are shrimp predators!) Peppermint shrimps can be very elusive and the coral banded may have not yet found them to eat them yet. I can say with almost 100% accuracy that if you add another cleaner shrimp it will be killed by the coral banded or the wrasse. The scarlet or fire shrimp is a very expensive one and I do not recommend it with the coral banded(or even a wrasse that has a taste for shrimp) unless you are willing to see the shrimp eaten!
I have no idea why your gobie died. It could have been any one of a number of reasons and since you were there your guess would be better than mine!