Cleaner Shrimp

[dannable]

35Gallon FOWLR (Started Sept. 1 2006)

Fish\Cleanup Crew - None, Still cycling
Live Rock - 30lbs
Coralife Super Skimmer 65
RenaXP1 Canister Filter (carbon & Micro Filtration Pad)
Power Sweep 212 Self-rotating Powerhead
50Watt Heater


Can I get some detail on Cleaner Shrimp care. Are they hardy? What do they eat? Do I really need to put iodine in the water so they can molt and what effect will that have on my setup? How many could I put in a 35Gallon?

[sir_dudeguy]

They're pretty hardy and active little shrimp. As far as i can tell, they dont really eat algae and crud..just whatever food finds its way to them. As far as adding iodine...i've heard of it before, but i'm sure that theres people who dont use it and their shrimp molts fine. And if dosed correctly, it wont cause any problems in the tank. Otherwise they wouldnt really have a market for the stuff would they? :)

oh, and i'd say you could get a pair of them. If/when they start mating, you'll have free food for all the fish and i've even heard that corals eat the babies.

hth

[HumanIMDB]

My cleaner shrimp was very hardy, even after a <a href="http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=936544" target=_blank>bad molt</a> it hung in for 9 days; we figure it's pincers weren't developed enough for it to get enough food.

They will eat whatever they can find. Hopefully they will eat the parasites off your fish or elsewhere in your tank but they will eat detritus and will grab food when you feed.

As for the Iodine, I read it was helpful but the opinion is that the bad molt was probably caused by using Purple Up which contains Iodine. I guess I should have followed the cardinal rule of "test <b>BEFORE</b> you dose"...

Not 100% sure about the numbers, but I would say 1 or 2 would be a good start.

[dannable]

Thanks for your advice. I am having second thoughts as they are about $30 Canadian and I heard they live only 2-3 years.

[sir_dudeguy]

oh, crud..i was thinking of something else when i was talkin about the iodine. I just remembered that someone told me it wasnt good, but i cant remember the reason..if you really wanna know on the iodine, i'd ask bertoni...he seamed to know about that.

But yes, they'er 25 bucks at most places here in the states...so i dont really think thats much of a difference. Just a couple bucks. They are expensive tho for a shrimp...seeing as i got a peppermint for like 4 bucks lol. Maybe try ordering one? does liveaquaria ship to canada? maybe try them.

[HumanIMDB]

LiveAquaria doesn't ship Livestock to Canada but there are several online vendors in Canada. Premium Aquatics, as I found out, does ship to Canada which means I can get the live rock I want when I get the big tank going. :D

I will PM you with a list of online vendors in Canada that are usually pretty cheap.

[HumanIMDB]

Hmm, you don't have PM enabled...

<a href="http://www.jlaquatics.com/phpstore/store_pages/details/janitors.php?product_ID=i-cleaner" target=_blank>Here</a> is the cheapest I've found.

But being that you are in Southern Ontario, you can probably head to <a href="http://www.bigalscanada.com/">Big Al's</a>.

[ANNIESREEF]

I've had my cleaner shrimp for almost 2 yrs now and he's doing fine. Usually eats when I feed the fish-he skims food floating on top of the water. When I feed the anemone I give a morsel to him then also.

You do not dose with iodine unless you have way to test for it. If you do regular water changes there really isn't a reason to...
My cleaner molts about once a month without my adding anything...
Cleaner shrimp are rather amusing. Mine will crawl all over my hand whenever I stick my hand in the tank and will even clean under my fingernails!

[sir_dudeguy]

lol they clean off your hand? thats cool :) And thats it...i'm getting one today lol.

[techreef]

skunk cleaner shrimp are excellent! way cooler and more entertaining than peppermint shrimp. i have two pep's and just added two skunks, and the skunks are smack dab in front, always out and active, while the pep's still hide in the rocks. I've gotten one of the pep's to be friendly and less skittish, but the skunks blow him out of the water. skunks look really cool under actinic light too.

i read that skunks are less scared/likely to hide if you get more than one. I think you could have two in your 35G tank, but I'll bow to others' opinions on that.

[dannable]

I am sold as well. I like the prices at J&L aquatics. They are about 15 bucks cheaper each but I would not be able to pick out the ones that I want. I will have to think about that one.

I like ANNIESREEF fingernail story too, nice.

[techreef]

not to beat the skunk bandwagon drum too much, but another cool thing about skunks over pep's is that skunks will swim through the water as well as walk around, so they're more active in the water column. i've had both my pep's and skunks clean my hand in the water, but the skunks act like x-wing fighter pilots and home in on my hand the second it enters the water, whereas the pep's need you to calmly position your hand close to where they can walk on to it.

[dannable]

Now that is cool!!! (the xwing thing). But would that not make them look like food to the fish?? I heard if a shrimp floats through the water the fish might pick at it.

[techreef]

no, they swim pretty aggresively. no floating. but don't combine your shrimp w/ certain tangs, wrasses, etc. or they'll end up as an hors-doerve, whether they're up in the water column or walking around the rocks.

[sir_dudeguy]

nah, the fish leave em' alone for the most part..well the ones that dont eat shrimp that is. Wrasses are usually hit or miss, and so are some angels..most tangs that i've seen are good with shrimp tho. But the fish somehow know that its a cleaner and in the wild, the cleaner shrimp will like group together at a certain spot on the rocks, and the fish will come by and get cleaned, then go on with their day...pretty much like a cleaning station. But same thing in aquariums...i've seen fish that pretty much force the shrimp to clean them lol. And i've even seen a yellow tang with a cleaner riding around on it ;)

[jpitts101]

i have 3 cleaners, one of which has eggs right now. they are very amusing to watch and play with. i have to hold food to my anemone's mouth or the cleaner will go steal it. they are fearless!! like mentioned above they will go to whatever is new to my tank and check it out! my tangs really love them and have even seen my lawnmower blenny chase a goby away that was messing with the cleaner. mine usually molts about once a month and are one of my best investments! a must have!!!!

[ReefBuilderNJ]

cleaner shrimp are hardy for me. they dont need iodine either