Yellow Tang Eating Cleaner Shrimp?

[idrum]

OK - so I had 2 cleaner shrimp go missing a few weeks ago. Today I added 2 new cleaner shrimp and a blood shrimp to my 75g.

Come back about an hour later to see my yellow tang, solarensis wrasse and 6 line wrasse going to town on one of the cleaners. They tore it apart - saw the blood shrimp so, I think he's ok, but was wondering how and why this happened. Especially since the yellow tang was the main culprit.

Can anyone help/explain?

 

[Emperator]

A tang will not go out of its way to kill and eat a shrimp however your wrasses are the likely culprits.

The tang was just getting a free meal off the kill.

 

[fishfarmer]

Sounds like they are hungry, how much do you feed?

 

[davelin315]

Cleaner shrimp will often kill each other in larger groups, and the dead or dying shrimp will be a meal no fish will turn down. I had 5 cleaner shrimp that I bought a long time ago, and after a few weeks, I had 2. One of them was completely devoured by another cleaner. The fire shrimp are less cannabalistic, and will hang out together. I don't know what a solarensis wrasse is, but it could be the problem, although I doubt the six line is. The yellow tang, I also doubt it touched your cleaners shrimp.