feeding cleaner shrimp

[ferg822]

i have a cleaner shrimp. Do i need to feed it? the local aquarium store said nothing about it. If i do, how do i do it, with tweezers or something?

 

[Thurge]

They should pick floating mysis out of the water column. They will also pull mysis out of corals before they can ingest it. If you wuold like to target feed them you can take a pinch of mysis in your hand and put it into the tank in their general vicinity. They will come over and grab it.

If yo put your empty hand in and keep it still they will probably come climb on your hand and give you a manacure, picking dead skin off your hand and from under your fingernail.

 

[DanInSD]

Our skunk cleaner shrimp go absolutely bonkers when we add mixed frozen food, like they haven't eaten in a day! (oh, right, they haven't...)

In any case your shrimp should just jump at any available food, once it is acclimated to your tank (which may take a few days).

To stay "on topic", I should point out that cleaner shrimp make excellent, if expensive, food items for mantis.

Dan