Cleaner shrimp.

[ElGuappo]

I jusat missed geting a pic but i saw the crazest thing just now. my tobbacco bass was laying on the sand bed and a cleaner walked by so the bass opened his mouth and the cleaner shoved his "arms" all the way down its throght.

I was in awe for a moment thinking this cant be good then i turned around to get the camera and it was over.

[KrazyKuch]

mine do that all the time to my fish!

[Keri]

Naw, don't worry, he was just making sure he didn't have bad breath ;)

[Reefhawk1]

That would be a sight to see. I have had a few sets of cleaners and my fish would only allow cleaning on their bodies. And even that was rare.

[ElGuappo]

ARE cleaneres egg scatterers or do they nest? i have found that one of the two has a bunch of eggs inside and i am just curious.

[Pier Pressure]

I have two cleaner shrimp who are always full of eggs. When the eggs are ready, they seem to move to the outside of the back-end of the cleaner shrimp and you can see them on the outside. Eggs look bright green while inside but are white once they move out. Then I think the eggs just hatch and you have millions of little shrimp. I once caught a feeding frenzy in my tank and can advise that the cleaners are not good parents and are quite happy to eat their young.

[VFX]

My cleaners seem to carry eggs for a while & then next thing you know it's like a shaken snow globe in there!

Teeny shrimp being blown all over the place & the fish & parents scrambling to eat as much as they can catch.

.

[ElGuappo]

Thats what i figured. what is your survival rate? any? do you remove ythe infants?

My cleaners seem to carry eggs for a while & then next thing you know it's like a shaken snow globe in there!

Teeny shrimp being blown all over the place & the fish & parents scrambling to eat as much as they can catch.

.

[banditpowdercoat]

Parents eat the young... Sounds great for survivability LOL

[Pier Pressure]

Well, my survival rate so far is zilch and none. The fish eat them so fast they barely have time to realize that they are out of the egg! I only have a 28 gallon so if there were babies that made it chances are I would see them.

[VFX]

Thats what i figured. what is your survival rate? any? do you remove the infants?

Survival rate of zip unfortunately!

I've never removed or tried to raise the infants.

.

[VFX]

oh...

& contrary to my avatar, my Cleaners do not carry guns & wear cowboy hats! :mrgreen:

.

[ElGuappo]

Too Bad.......:lol:

[Oscar]

El Guappo:

You have smaller tanks so I thought I would throw this question at you.

How many cleaners do you have? With a small fish population, and other than their own young, what do these guys feed on?