Gaa! goofy cleaner shrimp

[firecrackerbob]

I bought a nice GBTA a few months ago at TPP... since then its been slowly shrinking. I wasn’t sure what has been going on-- good lighting and flow, feed it silversides and mysis...

Well I moved it last week in a attempt to help it out... went to feed it some silversides last night and proceeded to watch the **** cleaner shrimp fight the GBTA for the pieces of silverside and eventually rip it out of its mouth!!!! no wonder its been shrinking- its starving!

Anyway… I’m thinking what I’m gonna have to do is to lure the shrimp into a Tupperware container trap and keep him in there for a couple of hours every week or so while I feed the anemone.

Has anyone else dealt with this problem or have any ideas??
Thanks
Eric

 

[Gordonious]

Should try listening to talkingreef.com I am trying to remember what episode he talks about this exact problem, but he went through the same thing. (he being Rob the host) Might try posting there and asking him about it. I believe what he did was just feed the shrimp first. Shrimp travel fast for food. Perhaps lure him to the opposite side of the tank give him a big chunk of food and then go back to feeding your coral. I think this is what he ended up doing, not sure though. Sounds like a good idea to me.

I have a female emerald crab the lives in the rock my sun coral is on. I feed her before the coral otherwise she'll go digging in the polyps for food.

 

[firecrackerbob]

yea, I tried that last night... little bugger took the chunk i gave him, munched on it for a while and decided he wanted more... guess this is one of the downsides of not really feeding my tank at all...
maybe ill try giving them all more food....

 

[bheron]

strange, b/c i was noticing just the other night that my cleaner shrimp is afraid of my GBTA. I figured b/c BTAs sting other fish that they also were stinging my shrimp.

When you feed the BTA, doesnt its tentacles close up over the food quickly to provide some protection?

a final thought - my BTAs are hosted by two pretty nasty cinnamon clowns, maybe they are enough to keep the shrimp at bay? do you have anything hosting?

 

[firecrackerbob]

The tentacles do close over the food pretty quickly, but I think the shrimp has learned if he fights enough that he can get the food out... I was pretty surprised last night to see him pull out a chunk of food that the anemone had been working on for about 10 minutes... if he is getting stung i guess its still worth it to him... I really dont feed my tank at all and the 1 fish and shrimp are basically on there own to forage...

Nothing hosting right now. my plan was to get the BTA settled in and after a few months get some clowns. since then, the BTA has been slowly getting worse though and im afraid trying to have it host put the nail in the coffin....but maybe im backwards there though...

 

[bheron]

could be the case, but i dont know for certain. i do know that they need food to survive. sounds like your original plan of sequestering the shrimp once a week is best!

 

[cdangel0]

I actually watched my cleaner shrimp clean my cndi today. I think the shell may keep them from getting stung. :hmm4:

I have a cuban hogfish that will try to steal the silversides from my RBTA - I find myself standing there chasing him off with the tongs for a few minutes after I feed the nem - he gets the idea after a few and will og away, maybe you just have to beat the snot outta your shrimp to teach it a lesson. :uzi:

 

[cdangel0]

Follow-up.....

I literally posted my response, got up and fed my tank. The damn cleaner just tried to take the food from my condi - Freeking thing must have been reading over my shoulder!!

Anyway, I fed it it's own silverside, put it right in it's claws, legs, pinchers thingys, he spent a minute or so devouring it, but then did leave the nem alone to eat.

 

[kaptken]

I had the same problem with 4 pepermints and 2 cleaners before. when i fed a seabae anemone i had the shrimp would come over, reach into its mouth and pull the food out. so i would feed all the shrimp first , then the anemone. I fed each shrimp a chunk of frozen shrimp by sticking it on the end of a bamboo shishkabob stick. then while they were busy chewing on the shrimp, i fed the anemone. a little chunk of shrimp keeps them busy for a while.

 

[firecrackerbob]

Thanks guys...
yea, goofy things...when I went to fed the BTA on sunday the little bugger wouldnt leave it alone.. I was chasing it away for like 10 minutes and finally gave up-- this after feeding it a piece of its own... went to feed the BTA again on monday and figured I would have to catch the cleaner first, tried to lure it into a tupperware container with a big piece of fish and the cleaner wanted nothing to do with it...
went on to feed the BTA with no problems... guess they will steal untill they have full bellies.... Im glad to report that the BTA is already gotten a little bigger and looking healthier.. hopefully a couple more feedings and I can add the clown ive been wanting and cross my fingers it will host...
Eric

 

[Shnabbles]

Dont anenomes NEED a clown to survive?... If you had a clown in there that cleaner shrimp wouldnt be able to get anywhere near that gbta..


My maroon clown feeds the anenome for me... you just drop the silverside in and the clown swims over and swoops it up and takes it over and pushes it right in the mouth of the anenome.

 

[Gordonious]

That's awesome that your clown feeds the anemone. I'd like to see that. I want to get one so bad, but may have to wait. Even when I upgrade my lighting I think my 20longs may be a bit small for one.

 

[firecrackerbob]

I havent heard that BTAs NEED an a clown to survive, but I have heard of similar behavior... that would make things alot easier if I could get that situation! I had hoped to have gotten a clown by this point, but havent had the chance yet...

Jon- my tank is a 20L with a 20sump.... from what I have seen, lighting, flow and food are the keys, but of cource if the anemone outgrows the tank you would eventually have a problem...

 

[cdangel0]

Anemones don't NEED a clown to survive, my clown won't go anywhere near my nems. And they are doing GREAT!

I thinkit's just beneficial to the anemone to have a host so that it can get enough food. That's what they do in the wild, feed their home. The anemone then offers protection to the clown from predators by stinging anything that comes too close.

We feed our nems directly thus eliminating the NEED for a host. But it does look really cool when they do host.