Cleaner Shrimp MIA

So I've had 3 Cleaners...

First one was a little guy, molted after a day or 2, was fine, molted again about 3 weeks later and was never seen from again.

Second one, has been in my tank for about 2 months, no signs of molting... Doing fine, but has never touched a fish.

Bought a 3rd one Friday morning, a big one, biggest I've seen in a store.
Molts Friday night, I see it Saturday up by the Skimmer hanging out. Haven't seen him since.
There's some places to hide, but nothing that I don't think I cant see at night w/ a flashlight, and he's nowhere to be seen.

I know they hide once they molt, but how have 2 completely vanished?

 

what kind of tank mates does he have? fish and other inverts?

 

Fish: Yellow Tang, Foxface, Mystery Wrasse, Purple Firefish, Chalk Bass, Bajaii Cardinal, Pink Spotted Watchman.

Inverts: Probably 10-15 Hermits and 1 Serpent Star. Various snails.

I did see the Hermits and the Serpent going to town on the molted leftovers. I'm 99% sure it was the leftovers, not the actual Shrimp.

Like I said, he molted overnight I guess, because for about 4-5 hours he was up at the very top behind the overflow. Then I lost track of him, but I know he didn't get out of the tank.

 

well, if it just molted, then I would just wait...

I would also suspect the serpent star... I have one of these now in my sump b/c I suspect it ate a few of his tank mates...

chalk bass are also known to eat shrimp, though it eating a cleaner is not as likely...

FWIW, I have never seen anything eat my shrimp's molts in my tank... I usually just fish them out b/c they otherwise sit and decay or get stuck in a powerhead.

 

Give him a day or so to come back out after the molt. As he said above.

 

It is entirely possible that your chalk bass and or your mystery wrasse could be eating them as they are known to sometimes attack ornamental shrimp.:-/From live aquaria:

When full grown, mature Mystery Wrasse may take a liking to smaller ornamental shrimp that are introduced after the wrasse is established in the reef aquarium.

Chalk Bass: Larger specimens may attack small shrimps, especially those within the Periclimenes genus.

 

When you find yours, tell me if mine is there too. LOL... Mine has been missing for 5 months now.. My first two that I had were awesome. They cleaned fish & were always out, heck even my hand when I would rearrange some rock at times. My last one, always hiding & I never seen it clean a single fish.

 

I didn't know that those fish might eat it.
The Chalk and Mystery wrasse are pretty small
Chalk is maybe 1.5 In and the Wrasse 2 In

The Serpent is so slow it seems shocking that it could capture the shrimp, and then keep it captured, but maybe...

He has been sitting in one spot for a while now, maybe going to town on it.

Either way, still no signs. Yet the other Cleaner is perfectly fine.
And again, this cleaner was pretty big.

Here's a photo I took day 1

 

my observation is that your cleaner's "whiskers" don't look as long as they normally do... maybe it couldn't detect a predator as quickly?

or it could have been that it molted, or was about to molt and in the process became susceptible to something eating it...

or maybe it's just hiding and you don't know it...

 

I'm thinking it's probably gone...
Which sucks. $25 and gone in a day.

Perhaps it's hiding, but like I've said before you can kind of see into all the caves and it's not there.

Out of curiosity, how would like the Mystery Wrasse it eat? Or kill it.
It was about the same size, just nibble it to death?