lazy cleaner shimps!!!

[PiscesLou]

I bought 2 cleaner shrimps about a month ago.At the LFS I picked them out because I saw both of them cleaning fish. the first week, they were hiding under rocks...ok getting acclimated to new environment...2nd and 3rd week they very active but I have not seen them clean anything. all of my fish swim up to them but they seem to tell my fish to "Go away I dont do that anymore" . Can I expect them in the future to start doing there jobs or should I fire them?

 

[steve-s]

This is actually more common than you might think. Most often it's the reverse though, they start out cleaning great and then peter out. Once the shrimp acustom themselves with tank life they quickly learn that "free food" comes to them, they don't need to work for it.

You also need to consider that the fish most likely have nothing on them to be cleaned in which case the shrimp will ignore the fish. Fish that act to aggressively while attempting to be cleaned by the shrimp will also be ignored.

Cheers
Steve

 

[phases99]

Be happy you don't have parasites for them to clean right now. Mine seem to pick off dead scales from my Chromis once in a while.

 

[revhtree]

Mine clean my arm real good, but thats about it right now.

 

[dralarms]

Mine clean my arm real good

Mine too, and anything else I stick in the tank. They will even swim into the net and attempt to clean it.