cleaner shrimp

Question
QUESTION: Hi Marcus, you've answered a couple of questions for me recently, and now I have another. In our 30 gal. tank, we had a cleaner shrimp, that appeared to be doing quite well, as he'd eat when the fish were fed, etc. Two days ago he was still there, but now seems to have disappeared without a trace. Would emerald crabs kill it and eat it? That's about the only thing in the tank we could think of. Our fish are a maroon clown, a six-lined wrasse and a scooter blenny, which by the way replaced the one that was killed by the anemone. This one even eats frozen brine shrimp! My wife is confounded by the loss of the cleaner shrimp though. Any thoughts or opinions on what could have happened to it? Our water tests show we're inside all the preferred levels. Thanks in advance,  Paul Fuehne

ANSWER: i have never heard of a cleaner shrimp getting killed by emerald crabs but im sure that could be a possibility, but one thing i have learned is they are great hiders. often times in my tanks they'll disappear for weeks at a time and then just re appear. often times when they molt they will hide out for quite sometime to ensure that it went well. this is what i would suspect. also check other areas of the tank, such as pump intakes and overflows to make sure hes not in any of those.

hope that helps

Marcus

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hi Marcus, hate to be getting to be a pain in the butt, but I'm trying to figure out how to add a fish without getting ick in the tank. We tried a blue hippo tang, but it had ick when we put him in the tank, and he died over night. We removed him immediately, and returned it to petco, which is one of our only sources of marine fish. A couple of days later, our banggai cardinal began breathing heavily and likewise died overnight.There were no signs of ick on the cardinal, and he'd been doing well for almost two weeks in the tank. We don't have the space to have a quarantine tank. How can we safely introduce new fish without putting our current ones at risk?? What could have caused the demise of the cardinal?? Are there any reef safe fish that are both colorful and tough/easy to care for/ introduce into our tank? We've got a lot of mushroom corals in the tank, what seems to be a plentiful supply of tisbe, and the three previously mentioned fish. It's tough explaining to the grandkids why Oreo, the name they gave the cardinal fish, died for no apparent reason.   Thanks again   Paul

Answer
well as you probably know most tangs are ich magnets, so that is how the ich got introduced in your tank. the best way to beat ich is to just keep a regular feeding schedule and keep your fish as healthy as possible and it wont break out. stress is what causes ich to get bad. if you have no corals, and never plan to i would suggest treating with copper, if not i would suggest leaving the tank empty of fish for at least several months to rid it of the ich.

there are many easy colorful fish, damsels and clowns are some of the most colorful fish, very easy to care for as well but can be a pain in the butt with aggression towards other fish. cardinals are very hardy as well for the most part.

hope that helps a bit

Marcus