Why can't I keep cleaners???

So I have a 125g with the following fish:
Yellow Tang
Blue Hippo Tang
Harlequin Sweetlips
2 Percula Clowns
Royal Gramma
Flame Angel
Coral Beauty
Yellow Watchman Goby

and the following inverts:
Emerald Crab
2 Peppermint Shrimp
Pistol Shrimp

Parameters: PH 8.0, Temp 78, SG 1.025, Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate <5.
I have tried on 2 separate occasions now to keep a cleaner shrimp and once to keep a cleaner wrasse and all 3 have simply disappeared after about 3 days of being in the tank. All seemed to acclimate well, the shrimp started eating frozen foods quickly and the cleaner wrasse teamed up with my yellow tang and started cleaning him up within an hour of being in the tank. So why are they disappearing? I realize that once big enough my Sweetlips will eat anything he can fit in his mouth, but he certainly doesn't look that big yet as he's only about 2" long right now. I never saw a fish pick on any of them other than maybe the tang nipping at the cleaner shrimps' antenna. I thought maybe the cleaner wrasse jumped out of the tank but from what I could see he wasn't behind the tank and that's the only way out from under the canopy. I do realize that cleaner wrasses can be difficult to keep but this one was eating frozen mysis well and as mentioned was eating parasites from my tang great. Any ideas? Thank you!

BTW, I would be glad to hear your comments/advice on my tank setup. I bought the tank established and have improved greatly on what the previous owner had. I've been watching Craigslist for more live rock and will be adding more powerheads soon. Thanks!

 

The sweetlips is probably doing in the shrimp since they eat crustaceans.

 

Any problems with snails or other inverts?

Cleaner shrimp are generally pretty easy to keep so long as they are acclimated correctly...as you obviously know the Harlequin is known to eat crustaceans and shrimp, but as you point out is still pretty small. Cleaner Wrasse on the other hand almost always starve even though they may appear to eat prepared foods...I've seen very few live for more than a few weeks.

 

Any ideas as to why he wouldn't have eaten the 2 Peppermint Shrimp then?

None, no problems with anything other than "Cleaners" disappearing. My peppermint shrimp both make appearances every few days. My hermits are doing fine too. Even if the wrasse were to starve he shouldn't just go from healthy to gone within one night. It just doesn't make sense to me.

 

Luck or bad luck with the cleaner.

 

I've had a cleaner warrase for over a yr, until I took down the tank and had a friend keeping it. He starved that thing to death.

 

Not unheard of, but rare...the vast majority do not make it long

That should rule out copper or other issues that would effect all inverts...oddly enough Cleaner Wrasses do tend to look "fine" and then just disappear IME...they build a "cocoon" to sleep in...I think they go into there and never come back out when they meet their demise.

 

But just a few days into a new tank where they were eating literally anything?? That sucks.

 

Hooray!!!! After about a week of hiding my cleaner shrimp showed his face today!!! He's still alive! Of course the cleaner wrasse is still MIA but at least all is not lost! This gives me a little bit of hope that I can keep a cleaner shrimp successfully in my tank.