Can nassarius snails catch and eat a sleeping percula clown?

[bodie]

My two percula clowns went missing over two consecutive days and I can't figure out what happened. Both fish were doing fine, eating, and showed no signs of illness. I saw them sleeping/wiggling around on the sand together at night. I noticed that there was a nassarius snail that had come up from the sand and was probably 2 inches away from where they were sleeping. When the lights came on, one of the clowns was missing. Then the next day the other one went missing. In the past, when I had a fish die in my tank, the nassarius snails came out and ate the corpse, but I would usually see all the snails in the same area and would find pieces of the corpse. I'm pretty sure the clowns are dead, but the snails weren't bunched together like in the past. I've checked the filter and outside the tank but I didn't find them. I also tested my water and everything came back fine. The other fish and corals in the tank are doing great. Could any of the following things in my tank be responsible for the disappearance?

Nassarius snails
Cleaner Shrimp
Scarlet Hermit Crabs

There are some other corals and turbo snails in the tank, but I thought it was more likely one the things above that caused the disappearances.

 

[usmcmarc]

I would believe that the ONLY way a Nassarius snail could do anything to a Clown would be if it were a corpse. You may have a nasty crab that hitchhiked on your LR... If the crabs big enough, it could grab a clown.

 

[bodie]

Yeah, I sort of figured that because I thought nassarius snails could only detect dead things and not living things. Well, it's been 4 days so I'm positive the clowns are dead and gone, but I just wish I could figure out what happened to them.

 

[cmor1701d]

Jumped? Did you check around the tank?

 

[melosu58]

I agree that they are too slow to catch anything. I would check around your tank as suggested.

 

[ryshark]

The exact same thing happened to me with a couple chromis. I still don't know what happened to them. I pretty much have the same inverts as mentioned above.

 

[bodie]

Yeah, I looked around the tank a second time, but couldn't find them. The thing that seems so odd to me is the way I lost one and then lost the other one the very next night. Especially since they had both been doing so well.

But the fact that the nassarius snails weren't hovering over a corpse leads me to think that you guys might be right. Maybe they did jump out of the tank or get caught somewhere where the nassarius snails couldn't access them and eat the corpse.

Real bummer. I really liked those little guys.