Are cleaner shrimp worth the negatives

[TheStrangler]

I just wanted to get some thoughts to maybe sway my opinion one way or another. I've successfully kept many skunk/fire cleaner shrimp but as I'm setting up another tank I'm weighing the pros vs cons again. Primarily the pestering of corals vs the potential benefit from their cleaning services. While I know most people will agree that what they actually clean is minimal and that they're mostly just entertaining little guys, everyone and their brother have an anecdotal story of a fish that came in with some parasite or illness that they swear the shrimp helped it to overcome. While I don't buy in wholeheartedly, its reasonably safe to say that they do offer some sort of benefit to the reef ecosystem. And when have reefers ever been known to pass up marginal gains? In the past I've tried to appease the little gluttons by feeding first the fish and shrimp, and then corals afterwards but its never really ever seemed to work. So the question is, do you live with them ripping food from your coral's mouths for the entertainment they provide and the potential role they fill, or given the chance would you have skipped them entirely?

 

[blaxsun]

I have too many fish that wouldn't mind shrimp on the barbie, so I've just gone with a cleaner wrasse instead (he does clean the fish, and excels at it).

 

[Gedxin]

No extensive experience, but my cleaner shrimp doesn't bother my coral too too much. Sure he'll occasionally walk over stuff and cause polyp retraction, but that's not often I find. I think tank size matters, as well as how frequent your feed intervals are. I would get another.

 

[TheStrangler]

A skunk in my other tank dove head first into a BTA and fought it for a piece of food. It had a good two minute struggle to escape, but I think it would do it again. I'm pretty certain you can feed an individual shrimp a full cube of frozen and it will never stop taking it. But I agree, I've never had one intentionally bother a coral or do any long term harm. My nitpick is spending 20 minutes with pumps off while an acan gets a bite to eat, and then a shrimp rips the food away despite already having eaten twice its body weight before feeding the corals. Realistically I know that you don't have to spot feed corals, but I find it pretty cool to do every week or so. Without that consideration, I'm very pro cleaner shrimp.

My future stocking list doesn't have anything that would make a meal out of a cleaner. Absolute worst case I could always toss it in the sump I suppose.

 

[Shibaken3]

Cleaner shrimp are ornamental pieces, they don't do much. Instead, I got a cleaner goby. Doesn't bother coral and is fun to watch when they clean.

 

[Mark Goode]

My wife won't let me have any, she says they've got too many legs and little beady eyes.

 

[blaxsun]

She'd absolutely love this guy then...

 

[TurboTang]

She'd absolutely love this guy then...

Yeah that really freaks me out - gonna take a while to unsee that image.

 

[blaxsun]

Yeah that really freaks me out - gonna take a while to unsee that image.

He's super peaceful - only comes out at night to scavenge around the tank.

 

[Zomp]

He's super peaceful - only comes out at night to scavenge around the tank.

What is it?

 

[aws2266]

I've got a cleaner shrimp. While I don't have much coral, what I do have he leaves alone. He's a pretty bug guy, molts about once a month. Mine is big enough I don't worry too much about him getting eaten(I'm sure if I starved my yellow coris wrasse he might not make it), that said, I just bought an anemone so we'll see. They are pigs, mine hogs the nori station and the blue tang works around him. We named ours Morey. He's got a lot of personality.

 

[NanoJHB]

In a big tank I think they're great.
In my 10 gallon nano, I'll never put another cleaner in there no matter how much I want one.

It constantly annoyed corals and made it impossible to spot feed any of my LPS.

For me, having my corals fed and happy outweighs the desire to have a cleaner. Think it comes down to personal preference. Corals should be okay without the spot feeding

 

[ccs]

Cleaner shrimp can be really problematic if you have corals or anemones that need frequent feedings. I´ve had multiple cleaner shrimps going inside LPS mouths (after all the food has been swallowed) and literally remove it while tearing apart some of the LPS´s mouth. Once they start doing this, they will always do it.

I started covering the LPS while feeding with a clear container and I've waited as much as 2 hours after feeding and the shrimp could still smell the food and steal it from the insides of the LPS.

So, no more cleaner shrimps. They are great scavengers but if you have LPS that require feedings, its a real hassle.

 

[exnisstech]

I have had 2 for quite a while. When they were in a 150g they were very active and set up a cleaning station and my tangs loved them. They would actually ride on my naso while cleaning her. But they were theiving SOBs. They would rip food out of corals mouth and actually dig inside their mouth looking for more. Fast forward I moved everything to 180g almost a year ago with the same fish and shrimp and they do not clean any fish. They stay hidden in the rocks and dart out for food and then back to hiding. The only time they are active now is at night when they go scavenging. I doubt I will replace them when they're gone. My coral banded shrimp (in a different tank) was much more entertaining to watch.

 

[olonmv]

In a big tank I think they're great.
In my 10 gallon nano, I'll never put another cleaner in there no matter how much I want one.

It constantly annoyed corals and made it impossible to spot feed any of my LPS.

For me, having my corals fed and happy outweighs the desire to have a cleaner. Think it comes down to personal preference. Corals should be okay without the spot feeding

100%. When my cleaner died, it was bitter sweet. Loved the goffyness of a cleaner shrimp, hated that it could not stop stealing food from corals. One time he accidentally glued his weenie hooks closed with some fresh glue I used on a frag. He rendered his stealing claws useless for about a week. It was a mini vacation. I’ll try one again someday but not in a nano tank.

 

[blaxsun]

What is it?

Adult decorator crab.

 

[doubleshot00]

I have onw in a IM15 nano and hes the show of the tank.

Now saying that we have threatened to throw him in the big tank many times as he can be a jerk to the other tank mates always stealing food. But mine does nothing. They are worthless but pretty.

 

[Tired]

Scarlet skunk cleaners are really great to show off to friends who don't know much about aquariums. It's not hard to train them to come up to hand-feed and clean hands, and they look flashy doing it. That said, yeah, they'll harass your LPS for food, and they don't serve any purpose other than looking neat. Great for an SPS or softie dominant tank.

 

[92Miata]

No extensive experience, but my cleaner shrimp doesn't bother my coral too too much. Sure he'll occasionally walk over stuff and cause polyp retraction, but that's not often I find. I think tank size matters, as well as how frequent your feed intervals are. I would get another.

A very significant portion of "my X is eating my Y" issues come from people who try to control nutrients/algae/etc from reducing feeding instead of increasing export. Animals that are constantly hungry are animals that are constantly trying to eat new things.

 

[TheStrangler]

I see a lot of people saying they don't really do anything for the tank. But is that truly the case? If they don't do anything, then in my opinion there is zero reason to ever put cleaner shrimp in a tank with most LPS.

Nobody recommends them as part of a clean up crew, but at the very least anecdotally there are tons of threads here where someone talks about their cleaners picking ick off of a fish, cleaning new additions, eating pests from the substrate, etc. Not that I'd want to rely on a cleaner shrimp to keep my fish healthy, but what I'm weighing is that one in a hundred chance that they increase the health of a tank versus the con of them being an annoyance to corals.