Disappearing Cardinal

[Leucotome]

Hi Everyone,

So about 2-3 days ago, I noticed that one of my cleaner shrimp disappeared. I figured that this was probably normal - that it had molted and was likely just hiding.

However, today my Banggai Cardinalfish also went missing. It had been in the tank for about 2 weeks, was eating well, getting along with all the other fish, etc.

I decided to move all my rock around to see if I could find either of my missing inhabitants, but unfortunately, I wasn't succesful.

Currently, my livestock is:
- Two Ocellaris Clowns (one is a Darwin)
- Yellow Tang
- Royal Gramma
- Flame Angelfish
- One Scarlet Skunk Cleaner Shrimp (I had two..)
- One Blood Red Fire Shrimp
- Frogspawn coral
- Tons of hermits/snails.

This is in a 54 gallon corner tank. Everyone gets along very well (no fin damage, etc, etc). They all eat very well. I haven't yet tested the water parameters since this occured.

The tank is covered, so I'm sure it didn't jump out.

Any ideas?

Do you think I may have a mantis shrimp hiding in my tank or something?

[Greatwhite]

Those Cardinals don't typically jump, but that is a possibility...  My Yellow Tang had mysteriously taken a dislike to my cardinals and killed all 3.  I am pretty sure that it was him responsible for it, because the second one was barely alive when I found him and he had punctures in his side like you'd see if the spike on a tang's tail hit it.  AND - the tang was biting at it -- alot.  This was after everyone was in the tank together for 2 months happily - and healthy.

The first and third were found after the massacre and were just heads and backbones like in a cartoon. 

There's a chance that your cardinal was killed by the tang and eaten up, bones and all, by the inhabitants.

[Leucotome]

Damn. I guess they can change their temperament towards an individual fish quickly?

Do you think this may have happened to my cleaner shrimp too?

Should I be worried about my other shrimp/fish?

[Greatwhite]

If you only had 1 cleaner shrimp, there's a good chance that he hid and died - and got eaten.  I made the mistake when I rebuilt of just putting one - only because Az only had one at that time.  It lasted 3 days before disappearing.  It seems that 2+ in the tank keep them more visible and less likely to stumble into a dark alley..

Yellow tangs are nuts...  They can be very calm and friendly one minute, and on a warpath the next.  Since Cardinals are generally a very slow moving fish (although they do have sudden bursts of speed sometimes), they may be targeted by a grumpy, territorial Tang.

My Tang took out a Dispar Anthias before getting my cardinals...  I have a feeling that Anthias was not entirely healthy from the start, and Darwinism took over.  That doesn't explain the Cardinals though, unless my Tang just got a taste for fish and wanted some easy targets.