What ate my peppermint shrimp?

[gsar]

I'm trying to figure out what might have eaten 3 out the 4 peppermint shrimp i put in my 75 gallon.

A while back I got them to clean out the aiptasia in my sump and they did a good job. After they finished I moved them into the display and about a week later three went missing. I have the following fish in there.

Pair of tomato clowns
One coral beauty
One chromis
One lawnmower blenny

No other crabs (except little hermits) and I've never heard the sound of a mantis. Actually had a cleaner shrimp in there for 6 months without any issues before i moved it to different tank.

Anybody ever have a problem with tomato clowns dining on peppermints? I haven't heard any of those fish being a problem.

Greg

[monocus]

they are probably hiding-only come out at night

[Myka]

Ya, prob hiding. How big is your tank?

[JonT]

75 gallon tank, yeah, I would bet they are hiding. Did they molt recently? If so, they are for sure hiding.

How is your salinity? Rapid changes to that can cause sudden death to inverts.

[gsar]

Salinity should be stable. It's been running with an auto top-off for quite some time but it is possible that my recent water change may have changed it slightly.

I'll check it out in the middle of the night just to make sure but they didn't seem too shy before they went missing. There's no sign of them when I feed the fish either.

I've just never heard of these fish going after them.

[BlueWorldAquatic]

There is also a possibility they died from not being acclimated properly. I personally had issues with shrimp in the past when I didn't acclimate them properly. They lasted only a week or two.

Ever since I started to drip acclimate survival rate has increased tremendously.

Just my opinion,

Ken - BWA

[gsar]

Thanks Ken,

They were in the sump for month before I moved them into the display tank. Same water.

I think I'll check the tank out about an hour after the lights go off to see if they come out just to be sure they are gone. I'm pretty sure they are gone though.

When I fed the tank they weren't shy and would poke out of their caves and grab food.

[Snaz]

I lost a peppermint shrimp to my candycane coral, walked by the tank and it was half engulfed by one of the heads. I pulled it out of the coral but it was a deader.

[gsar]

That's wild. Killer candy cane.

[gobytron]

you're all wrong.

it was ME...:twised:

[gsar]

I'm glad you could clear your conscience:biggrin:

[reefwars]

have you checked your sump maybe they found there way back down???

[gsar]

YOU GUYS WERE RIGHT!

Little buggers only want to come out at night.:mrgreen:

I was fooled by the fact that they were out in the open for the first week in the display tank. Maybe because the light cycle in the sump was the opposite of the display tank and they finally adjusted?

Sort of like Shrimp jet lag?

[ALang]

A happy ending!! Better than mine. I never found my cleaners or peppermint shrimps. I think my small wrasses (fairies, flashers) think that I was a wonderful Mom and providing them with fresh snacks!

[gsar]

Yea, last year I had a picture wrasse. One day I came home to find that it looked like it had swallowed a beach ball which ended up being a cleaner shrimp.

Thanks to everybody for the input.