How well do cleaner shrimp clean? And which types clean?

[The Escaped Ape]

I'm considering getting a cleaner shrimp for my tank. Partly as I'd like to have a way to keep my fish clean of parasites etc - my Purple Firefish currently has a whitish blob on it which looks like it's not ich and it's not an isopod, but not normal). But is this a good reason to get a cleaner shrimp? Will they actually clean?

Also, I'd prefer to get one of the smaller cleaner shrimp (maybe a Periclimenes sp.). Does anyone have experience of these performing a cleaning function? A search on Google seems to indicate that they do in the wild, but will they in my tank? A Periclimenes sp. might be a better size for the small fish, mostly gobies, that I intend to keep, but if one of my reasons for getting one is their cleaning function, it would be nice to hear people's experiences here.

 

[Sugar Magnolia]

From what I just looked at, Periclimenes are commensal shrimp, not cleaners. I've kept Lysmata amboinensis; cleaner shrimp, for years and they have always been great at doing their job. Mainly, my arm when it's in the tank for maintenence, but I've seen them hop on to a fish as it passed by it's cleaning station. Granted, my tank is small, but each shrimp I've ever had was quick to scope out a particular rock to hang out on and wait for a fish to come by. My clown never seemed to mind, but I had a yellow watchman goby that didn't care for the shrimps dilligence in cleaning it.

I've also had blue neon gobies do their cleaning routine as well. Again, my arm, but also my clownfish.

 

[greenbean36191]

Perliclimenes is a big genus with some species that are cleaners and some that are commensals. As long as you get one of the species that are cleaners, they will do a good job of cleaning in captivity. I've personally been cleaned by captive P. pedersoni and P. longicarpus, and there have been captive studies done with P. holthuisi as well.

While these guys do clean quite readily, cleaning fish does not equate to controlling parasites. Most of what they pick off of fish is mucus, scales, and dead skin, and in at least one study, that's all that was found in their guts- no parasites at all. They are known to eat some parasites, but none that tend to be problematic in the hobby. Ich is not among them, and in feeding trials with ich they had no statistically significant effect on parasite loads. They often fool hobbyists though since they will remove the white nodules of damaged skin that are the classic sign of ich. Unfortunately that has no impact on the parasite, which is embedded under the top layer of skin.

Bottom line, they're great additions to a tank, but should not be considered biological control for parasites.

 

[The Escaped Ape]

Thanks both, that's really helpful. I'm keen on getting one of the Periclimenes shrimp and it'd be cool to know it could act as a cleaner as well, even if it's just to observe interesting behavior, rather than for parasite control.

 

[DeepSeaBeauti]

I have had a pair of Scarlet Skunk cleaner shrimp in my 125 for almost 2 years now. They will clean any fish thats interested. Its really cool to watch. The fish will swim almost side-ways and hover next to the shrimp as they do there thing. The other cool thing about these shrimp is with two they have the ability to breed. About every month or so the one gets a belly full of greenish eggs. Usually in the morning hours when im feeding i get what looks like a tank full of micro bubbles. If you look closely you can make out very small shrimp. Most if not all become fish food, but its still cool to see.

 

[snorvich]

I'm considering getting a cleaner shrimp for my tank. Partly as I'd like to have a way to keep my fish clean of parasites

Well, the bad news is that cleaner shrimp have no effect on parasites that you would normally encounter. The further bad news is that not all fish will allow cleaning. That being said, however, cleaner shrimp are excellent scavengers and do not need to clean in order to thrive.

 

[jeff@zina.com]

I have had a pair of Scarlet Skunk cleaner shrimp...

These are some of the coolest shrimp even if none of the fish want cleaning, so it's hard to lose with them.

Jeff

 

[curthendrix]

Skunk cleaner shrimp are great scavengers. I utilize these instead of crabs. They are interesting to watch, provide your aquarium with food via spawing, and don't kill snails.

 

[The Escaped Ape]

Thanks all for the further advice! I'll think about it some more before buying.