i guess i should have asked this question earlier, but i guess i wasnt thinking right :P .
I have three cleaner shrimp and i was wondering what they eat?
Will they eat fish food?
Should i start feeding more? Are they shy or active?

thanks in advanced

p.s i know im weird and i should have asked this before buying the shrimp :roll:

Hi Rockthis,

Your cleaner shrimp will eat flakes (and can learn to take them from your hand). My cleaner shrimp has thrived on Ocean Nutrition's Formula One. They eat lots of things, including small pieces of seafood. What do your cleaner shrimp look like? They are usually friendly.

However, you now have a problem, since your future octopus likes to eat shrimp! This is why I set up my second tank - for my cleaner shrimp, whom I'd become fond of.

Nancy

Hi Nancy,

I think they are called skunk cleaner shrimp. They seem to be very shy and all they do is hang around the back.
About the Ocean Nutrition's Formula One do you use this for all of your fish? Maybe i should buy some.
Also, wont the fish eat the flakes before the shrimp can get at them?
awwww now i feel bad. I hope i dont get attached to them :( .
Iv got it! Maybe if i ask my octo really nicely it wont eat them! its brilliant!

P.S- if it matters there are three in my tank.

here are some pics of them

If Im not mistaken i think those are peppermint shrimp :D 8)

hhehe 8) yep you are mistaken!!! :)

They are the skunk cleaning shrimp, peppermints have a kinda wavy paisley pattern going on....

RT
once they settle in they will swim all over the tank and clean all over. they will compete with the fish for food and swim to the surface to get food...

That is the same species Nancy has, they are also one of my favourite tank inhabitants :)

Hi all,

Here is a pic of Shrimpy eating his favorite way, on Bill's hand. While he eats, he also runs over the hand looking for hairs, hangnails or other places to clean up (a cleaner shrimp's duty!).

He also eats small pieces of seafood and will eat flakes and other things he finds on the rocks.

Nancy

haha very nice pic. i hope my shrimp will stop being so shy!

Give your shrimp some time, Rockthis - Shrimpy hid behind rocks for days before getting the courage to come out, and it took some more time before he would climb on a hand.

Nancy

Alrighty then. Also, whenever i feed my fish their flake food the shrimp dont eat. They come out from the back and stand on the rocks in plain view but they dont swim. Im sure its nothing but it does make me wonder. (they havnt eaten yet).

Hi Rockthis,

I used to feed my cleaner shrimp with frozen brine shrimp. The moment the brine shrimps hit the water, the cleaner would go totally ballastic! Fun to watch.

:P LS

frosen mysis work well too.

I used to feed my cleaner shrimp with frozen brine shrimp.
frozen brine shrimp is the best, at my LFS they stock it all the time!! 8)

will the mollies try and eat the frozen brine shrimp?

yes, of course, they will surely eat it if you feed it to them.
here's a link about mollies:
http://www.petfish.net/molly.htm

thanks. haha i dont want the mollies to eat the brine shrimp. For some reason my cleaner shrimp dont swim (go figure :P ) so i need ther food to frop down to them, and it cant if my mollies eat it before then.

One of my cleaner shrimp passed on today (sort of).

It got in a fight with another shrimp and lost and now it is being eat by it. The two remaining shrimp are fighting over the body :cry: .

poor little guy.

p.s- today one of the shrimp ate out of my hand :D

I dont want to fill you with hope but.............

shrimps shed their skins to grow, and sometimes a shrimp will shed its skin during the night and then hide for a day or two... meanwhile the skin floats about and is 'recycled' by the other tank inhabitants.... the shrimp may re-appear in a day or two only a bit bigger......

Its a possability that its just the skin being eaten that you seen and the shimp is hiding?????

Hi Rockthis,

Nice that the cleaner shrimp ate from your hand. They are very friendly little creatures and will have a lot of personality, if you give them attention. They will learn to recognize you and always be glad to see you.

Now, when are you setting up your second tank, so your octo won't eat them? :)

Nancy

Now, when are you setting up your second tank, so your octo won't eat them?
i was meaning to ask him the same thing, lol. :)

lol :) . i already have a second tank set up. It just needs to cycle. its a 12 gallon