Cleaner Shrimp Won't Clean!

nanmer · #1 09-13-2009, 04:01 PM

I have two cleaner shrimp that are lazy! They are good enough size that they should not be afraid and most of my fish are an inch or two (do have a hippo tang that is about 4 inches). Is this a learned behavior? I read about other shrimp setting up cleaning stations ... mine, not so much! They will clean my hand if it goes in their cave and at night they sleep in a different location (not totally sure where)

Would more shrimp be better? With a hippo tang I would really like a working crew to keep him clear of ich.

marie · #2 09-13-2009, 04:08 PM

Cleaner shrimp are unreliable ick cleaners in fact I'm not convinced that they even eat ick.

Back when I had ick in my tanks I tried the cleaner shrimp route but they seem to ignore ick completely when actively cleaning

BlueAbyss · #3 09-13-2009, 07:46 PM

Hmm, maybe you'd have better luck with neon or sharknose gobies.

Zoaelite · #4 09-13-2009, 08:51 PM

I think its a hit or a miss with them, my first one never did but the second one I got (Lanny McDonald) is a super aggressive cleaner. His little post is on the under side of one my larger toadstools and all of the fish in the tank frequent it quite often.
Levi

mike31154 · #5 09-14-2009, 01:07 AM

Yeah, I think 'cleaner' shrimp is a bit of a misnomer. Some fish don't even want to be cleaned. I've seen mine actively cleaning at times, yet on the other hand, one of my fish will obviously park itself close looking to be cleaned only to be completely ignored. Still, they can be useful and entertaining to have. I've witnessed one of my cleaner shrimp yank a bristleworm out of it's hidy hole and devour it.

I started with one and added a second hoping they would produce eggs as food for other tank inhabitants. Seemed to work pretty well for about a year until one of them inexplicably died. One of these days I'll look to add another.