skunk cleaner kill RBTA??

[Zer0.]

Hello all,

So I got a small RBTA two days ago and it seemed to do all right mouth opened up and looked stressed during acclimation but after that I placed him up high on a rock with good lighting and moderate pulsing current and he anchored down and seemed to inflate out all his tentacles nicely. Any way yesterday I fed him a small piece of mysis and had to blow the cleaner shrimp away over and over again to keep him off the RBTA, then through the day after than i noticed the cleaner walkin up on the RBTA now and then and picking at the RBTA, I woke up this morning and the shrimp was camped out on the RBTA picking at it and the anenome does not look good now.

Can cleaner shrimp eat bulb tip anemones? I dont know what to do. Afraid it might already be too late. I should have put the shrimp in the sump for a while in hindsight....

Any one else had this prob.? or have any advise?

 

[m0nkie]

shrimps always steal food off of corals/anemone.. they won't eat the coral, but they rip the food out of the coral's mouth. Sometimes that lead to the death of the coral..

you can either:

1) use a 1 liter bottle and make a feeding tube. this way, you can watch your coral eat the food safely inside.

2) broad feed the tank, specially the shrimps, and sneak in some food to the coral/anemone while your shrimps are eating

 

[Zer0.]

I dont know it def. looked like it was eating the actual anemone. i mean he was there on it this morning when i got up and that was a good 10 hours after I fed it.

 

[shesacharmer]

I always hand feed my cleaner shrimps first...a nice big piece, and then feed the corals while they are busy. My shrimps eat alot more than I would have guessed so I'm generous with the meaty bits I give them.

 

[m0nkie]

I dont know it def. looked like it was eating the actual anemone. i mean he was there on it this morning when i got up and that was a good 10 hours after I fed it.

I guess stay up awhile after lights out and check. cleaners shrimps are fairly easy to see. you will be able to see them rip a piece off. I have heard of peppermint shrimps eating dying corals.. but never heard of shrimps eating anemone.

 

[Carlosroach]

One of my biggest pet peeves about the cleaner shrimps. I think I'm just getting rid of them.

 

[Saltliquid]

All lysmata, well we have two species over here, are nasty killers when it suits them.

 

[Mike Ordner]

I would stop feeding the rbta and see if the shrimp leaves it alone. If it is under good lighting it does not need to be fed. If the anemone recovers and you want to still feed it, then try what the other posters state about feeding the shrimp first.

 

[Zer0.]

So I'm thinking maybe the RBTA was expelling some zoo from the lighting change and perhaps the shrimp was eating that. I placed him pretty high up on rocks (in hindsight this might not have been a good idea).

Any way turned LEDs down a bit (from 10% white 60% color to 10% white and 50% color) and when I got home from work the nem seems to be fully open and its tentacles are "bulbed" at the end so I'm hopefully. Thanks for the advice everyone. Think I'll avoid trying to target feed it for now.