3 fish presumed dead

my 90 gallon is 4 years old with no problems of missing fish however. recently i added 8 very small damsels. 1 i found dead with its stomach ripped out. 2 have dissappeared. is it possible i have a mantis shrimp even though ive never had a problem tell now or is it more likely the larger damsels(domino,4 stripe, yellowtail) bullied them to death and then my sally crab or urchin ate them?

 

Hmm. This is tricky. I also think I have a little mantis bugger that loves eating snails and such. As for your fish, how long did you acclimate them for? It is possible that the more dominant ones did kill off the lesser guys. Damsels can be pretty agressive and if one is dead, then your sally would hesistate to eat it up.

 

i acclimated them for a hour they seemed perfectly fine for the first 2 days

 

There were already larger damsels in the tank? I would bet some serious money that they tore up the little ones.

 

I think a mantis would have done some noticable damage in the four years you've had the tank. Have you recently added LR?

 

no i haven't added any so i doubted it would be a predator like the mantis i just thought it was weird i can't find there bodies

 

Are they in the overflow box?

 

nope

 

2 blues and one 3 stripe