Cleaner Shrimp vs. Hammer Coral

[Spyderturbo007]

I took this video a few weeks ago and thought I would post it up for some amusement. I decided to feed the Hammer Coral after I fed my fish and shrimp, but my cleaner shrimp decided that wasn't good enough and wanted the hammer corals food too. He got stung enough and decided to give up after a few minutes.

Unfortunately, my Hammer Coral is bleached right now so it doesn't look nearly as beautiful as it did before. :sad1: I'm still trying to nail down that problem.



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[GPB]

Those cleaner shrimp are gluttons. Mine is always rooting around in my Duncan. Makes the Duncan close up all the time.

 

[Spyderturbo007]

The little guy is like a bulldozer when I feed the tank. He doesn't care who or what he runs over to get the food. I'm sure it's annoying for my polyps, but he definitely adds an interesting dynamic to the tank. When he's not annoying my coral, he is normally chasing around my fish trying to clean them. Unfortunately, none of my fish want anything to do with him. Poor little guy.

 

[negia22]

same here, my cleaner shrimp is a pig, he always tries to steal my sun's coral food, I have to watch him and squirt him some water when he get's too close to my sun coral.

I love him and enjoy watching him when he tries to chase my fish as well trying to clean them but very annoying during feeding time.

 

[Motish]

Hi spiderturbo,
Can you please give some details about the way you feed your torch coral? And with what? I've never seen my torch coral grab anything.

 

[Spyderturbo007]

Sorry Motish, I can't help you with that question. I don't own a Torch coral, just a Hammer, Galaxy and Stylophora coral.

When I feed the Hammer Coral, I just cut up small chunks of raw shrimp and then just feed a pea sized amount to each head.

 

[Motish]

Oops... I wrote torch but I actually meant hammer.
Thanks for the answer, do you see it grab the food instantly?

 

[Spyderturbo007]

Yep. It is pretty sticky and grabs the shrimp right away.

 

[Motish]

Do you aim it directly to the head's mouth?

 

[Spyderturbo007]

Nope. I just drop it wherever to be honest and it takes care of moving it towards its mouth.

 

[Motish]

Thanks allot, gonna try it tomorrow...

 

[Spyderturbo007]

Keep me posted and let me know how you make out.

 

[Motish]

Just tried. But the hammer coral didn't react, I want to feed him because lately I had ATS crash and since then he looks bad. I thought some food might help him recover.

I also tried to turn off the flow but then the shrimp just rest on it without any reaction from the coral.
Any suggestions?

 

[Spyderturbo007]

I really don't know to be honest. My tank has only been up since June, so I'm not very experienced. Sorry I can't be more help.