What shrimp will eat parasites off of my fish? I currently have a coral banded shrimp, but all he seems to want to do is eat my fish! So i think my clown may have ich or some other parasite because he has a little white spot on his top fin. What type of shrimp should i replace my CB shrimp with? I was thinking peppermint, fire, or skunk? Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!
Do shrimp eat parasites off of fish?
- Thread starter bigj11
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iamwrasseman
New member
yup i have cleaner shrimp in a few tanks and they do good work on the exterier of my fish , they kind of set up a cleaning station up in a weird way ,they just hang there and the fish file in for cleaning just like a car wash !
flameangel88
New member
My experience with shrimps is that the smaller ones cleans more while the larger ones doesn't clean much.
flfireman1
Wrasse aficionado
I have a pair of coral banded shrimp 3 skunk cleaners and 3 fire shrimp. The CBS do not bother any of the shrimp. Ive found that the fire shrimp actually stay away from each other and show aggression towards each other. I have enough rock in my tank where they all are pretty happy. But I would disagree with the statement made that the CBS will eat the other shrimp.
In my aquarium the only fish which allow cleaning from the skunk cleaners are the tangs. Wrasses pretty much stay away from cleaner shrimp in general and so do my clowns.
In my aquarium the only fish which allow cleaning from the skunk cleaners are the tangs. Wrasses pretty much stay away from cleaner shrimp in general and so do my clowns.
Stanley-Reefer
New member
Scarelets and fire fish clean in both of my tanks. I have a watchman goby that will allow them to clean inside his mouth.
I even watched my falco hawkfish allow the fire and scartlet to do the same the other day!
What is funny is when the fish roll up to the coral banded who smacks/pinches them away!!!
I even watched my falco hawkfish allow the fire and scartlet to do the same the other day!
What is funny is when the fish roll up to the coral banded who smacks/pinches them away!!!
RainbowTurtle
New member
Bringing the thread back to topic:The fish who would not let my shrimp clean them:
Centropyge potteri
C. argi
Genicanthus melanospilos
G. lamarck
Nemateleotris magnifica (firefish
Amphiprion oscellaris
Seems angels don't like them either. But the shrimp love to clean my hands when I go working.
I isolate them with the fish in a bowl with a bubbler in tank water. The fish are skittish until they learn the shrimp mean them no harm. Some still won't come around, but than some do. Much better luck anyway. Once they know they mean them no harm and that it feels good, they often come back on their own.
ThRoewer
New member
What research?
I found research that shows that cleaner shrimp go after gill and skin flukes and crustacean parasites.
"Apart from cleaner fish, there are many reports on cleaning by shrimps, yet whether shrimps actually "˜clean', i.e. eat parasites in the wild, has not been demonstrated. For the first time, we show that, conclusively, cleaner shrimp in the wild do clean. We found crustacean ectoparasites from the Family Gnathiidae and the Class Copepoda in the gut contents of wild cleaner shrimp, Urocaridella sp. and Periclimenes holthuisi. In addition, they ate parasitic monogenean flatworms, Benedenia sp., offered to them in the laboratory. Finally, P. holthuisi, significantly reduced monogenean, Benedenia sp., loads by 74.5% on captive surgeonfish Ctenochaetus striatus within 48 h. Such large reductions in parasite loads are likely to benefit individual fish. These results emphasise the need for more information on the ecological role of cleaner shrimp on coral reefs"
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00338-004-0429-3
I could also imagine that they remove dead skin tissue or remove food leftover from the fish's teeth.
Though I seriously doubt they go after protozoan parasites (ich, velvet, ...)
The issue is whether cleaners (shrimp or wrasses) have any effect on preventing ich, velvet, brook, uronema since most people employ them thinking that they help. Do you really want to argue that they do? Or have people think they do? I am not going back into Google Scholar to dredge up the research on stomach contents assays but if it floats your boat, go for it.
Newsmyrna80
Active member
Steve, I'd love to see a pic of the shrimp cleaning your teeth :bigeyes:Mine cleans my hand but that about as familiar as I want to get:lmao:
Remember, I was diving so it is very easy to take a regulator out of your mouth to allow teeth cleaning. It sort of tickles. When you need to breath, simply push them back out with your tongue. Here is a cute video (my experience was with stills and are not digitized).
