do blood/fire red shrimps do any cleaning?

[proverbs]

i picked up a fire shrimp at the lfs several days ago and was hoping i would see it clean some fish. unfortunatley, mine just hangs upside down on the bottom of my lr and only comes out for a few seconds if it sees some food floating around.

will the fire shrimp become more active as it gets more established in the tank or is it normal for the fire shrimp not to really do anything?

 

[Syn6644]

Hello there!

Fire Shrimp love to hide and hang upside down on the bottom of lr! They love dim light and a lot of hiding places. My fish took a little while to get used to my cleaner shrimp and vice versa, it was about a week after I got my shrimp until they got used to eachother. Most fire shrimp do clean parasites off of fish, but some won't. Wait about a week and see if your shrimp doesn't come out and start cleaning and scavenging a bit. Congratulations on your new addition, I have yet to get a beautiful fire shrimp!

 

[proverbs]

thanks for the reply Syn. yea, i was thinking it might need some time before it starts cleaning. hopefully it turns out to be one of the fire shrimp that actually clean.

i got the fire shrimp because it looked so much cooler than the cleaner shrimp, but i kind of regret it now because i read somewhere that fire shrimp don't really clean.

 

[reefrunner69]

My experience is that they don't clean very much, if at all. One thing you can to to make them more visible and active is to add more of them to the tank. With just one in the tank they are reclusive, with several they become more active.

 

[Syn6644]

I agree with reefrunner, you can add one or 2 more and see if it makes it happier. If not, you can always return it to your lfs if they give you credit and maybe get something else a little less reclusive, perhaps a sexy shrimp? They always put on a little show when they sway back and forth, and aren't as expensive as fire shrimp. You can get about 2 or 3 of these and they'll be pretty happy, however if you are looking for a cleaner shrimp specifically, the sexy shrimp don't really clean either 8O . HTH Let me know what you end up with! =)

 

[DragonForce]

If you want a cleaner your best bet is the skunk cleaner shrimp. My mom has a blood shrimp, he is very cool but he likes to hide all day. Many of the home specie of shrimp available are cleaners but rarely do so in the home aquarium.

 

[proverbs]

do you guys think it will be ok if i add a cleaner shrimp with my fire shrimp in my 40 gal tank? will the two shrimps have any relationship at all?

dragforce - do you have a picture of your tank? we have a similiar size tank, but yours sounds like it's PACKED. i would love to see what it looks like.

thanks.

 

[mp3z24]

i have 2 blood red fire shrimp, 2 cleaner shrimp, and 4 peppermint shrimp in my 55, and the fire shrimp are bullies. the big fire shrimp will chase away every other shrimp in the tank, and the little fire shrimp will chase away anyone but the larger one (even though my cleaners are both bigger than the larger fire shrimp)

they are territorial and chase others away, so be warned.

also, all of my shrimp wander all over my rocks. they hid for a while when i first got them, but now they are out all the time... and they all go nuts when i feed.

~mike

 

[demodiki]

My fire shrimp cleans sparingly. He does seem to clean when I add something new but this tapers off and he doesn't go near them after that....like all the others, he hangs out upside down in a cave.

 

[DragonForce]

http://aquariumadvice.com/viewtopic.php?t=66220


I have 2 pictures in that thread. They really don't do my tank any justice but you can kinda get the idea. HTH

 

[proverbs]

the fire shrimp are pretty hardy though right? i don't have to worry too much about feeding them since they will scavenge for food.

dragonforce - WOW. that is a very nicely PACKED tank. it actually looks like a 60 gal tank because you have so much cool stuff in there. the placement of your rocks is awsome as well.

 

[proverbs]

i have 2 blood red fire shrimp, 2 cleaner shrimp, and 4 peppermint shrimp in my 55, and the fire shrimp are bullies. the big fire shrimp will chase away every other shrimp in the tank, and the little fire shrimp will chase away anyone but the larger one (even though my cleaners are both bigger than the larger fire shrimp)

they are territorial and chase others away, so be warned.

also, all of my shrimp wander all over my rocks. they hid for a while when i first got them, but now they are out all the time... and they all go nuts when i feed.

~mike

if i get a cleaner shrimp, is it possible that the fire shrimp will actually KILL it?

 

[seaham358]

I have 5 FS and they don't do any cleaning at all
But they are very cool and get a lot of comments when I have people over. They stand out in the tank very nicely.
My skunk cleaners cleaned my tangs when i had them.

 

[lando]

If you want a cleaner get a skunk. I have a fire shrimp in my 72gal and I see it a lot, but it does not clean anything except the substrate. I just ordered another one from liveaquaria for my nano. $24 from them vs. $69 locally.

 

[proverbs]

$69!? wow. they must be the only fish store within a 100 miles!
i picked mine up for $25 at the LFS. i think i'm gonna pick up a skunk cleaner this week though.

you said that it cleans the substrate - as in, it cleans my sand? in that case, the fire shrimp is pretty handy.

 

[lando]

No, I live in a major Metro area (Minneapolis, MN)and it is the going price for blood shrimp at all of the LFS. I do notice mine scavaging on the substrate for food.

 

[melosu58]

I have one in my tank and he does a fair job inspecting and cleaning my fish

 

[bromion]

My fire shrimp spends 99% of its time in the same snug spot in the LR formations. It is very reclusive. I have yet to add fish to my tank, but I imagine that won't change its behavior much. That being said, it's a treat when it makes an appearance!