Cleaner Shrimp : Strange Behaviour
 

Hi All
I have a cleaner shrimp that molte on Friday. Saturday, he stayed in his cave all day/ night long, and wouldn' t come out at all which I understood was normal. Yesterday, when I got up and looked into the tank, he was sitting way up high in the water colum, just sittin ghere doing nothing. When the lights came on, he promptly moved to a rock, totally out in the open and pretty much stayed tere all day, only moving a small amount side to side on the same rock. He did spring into actin when I dropped in some mysis shrimp, he ate it , then went back to the same spot.
I wokr up this am , and sure enough, he is stitting in the exact same spot but appears to be way more active today. He is moovibng around alo t more and will " floolw me" to the other end of the tank but wont stay. He just goes back to the same spot.
He looks fie, no signs of trauma or anything, no visiable damage, his colr is normal, everything looks fine, he just is very inactive compared to " normal".
Water parmaiters are norm : sg. 1.024, ammonia =0 , nitrites=0, nitrates = 5.ppm PH 8.2, temp 79

Is this behaviour likely related to his recent molting, how long does it usually take before a shrimp is back to " normal" after molting ?
I'd apprecaate any thoughts or comments regarding this, I"m kinda worred about thim

Thanks
Captainhemo

Perhaps it decided to set up a cleaning station at that spot, and it was purely by coincidence that this happened right after molting.

I do not have nay fihs in this tank, is it possible he'd still set up shop w/o fish ? I have never had a cleaner before so this behaviour is new to me but now that you have mentioned that, its almost like that is what he is doing, he seems to be waiting there for something !!
I did recently add a tuxedo urchin and a stawberry snail, but he wouldnt be waiting to clean them would he ? I guess maybe I should get a fish or wo so he has something to do ?

Thanks

I don't think it (they're hermaphrodites) has any clue there are no fish in the tank. I wouldn't worry too much about it getting bored. :wink: Take your time in buying fish, the shrimp won't be any worse for the wear. You might buy it a friend though, as watching their interactions can be quite interesting.

He may be drying his new "suit". It takes a bit for their new exoskeleton to harden and maybe he feels safer there. Just a guess. :lol:

My cleaners always molt on the top of the rock using it to snag off the old skeleton.

One of my cleaners always chose a certain spot on the LR similar to what you described to start a cleaning station & it was really neat to watch it do its symbiotic thing. Until something killed it :evil: :evil: :evil: In general, once my cleaners have been in the tank long enough to be comfortable, they'll sometimes choose to stay up high, perhaps to spot the food faster.

I do hav a peppermint shrimp to, but he is relaly shy. I havent seen them inteeract at all yet ( I've only picked up the peppermint receintly to help deal with some small aptaisia.
After the cleaner first molted, he wouldnt even come out for over 24hrs. Once he did come back out, he has basically been on that rock ever since.
I have actually been thinking for some time about what fish I wanted to have so it will not be a " spur of the moment" decision. I have been thinking of getting a scooter bleenie , I think they are kinda neat and possibly a type of clownfish Still not 100% sure so I'll hold off until i read some more about the different fish options. I really want something that is gonna be community oriented, not too large as I only have a 33 gal tank.
Thanks for all the input, I feel better about the shrimp now, not so worred

captainhemo.

Word of caution. Scooter blennies are very similar to Mandarins and often need a very healthy pod population to do well long term. Same family I believe. Lawn Mower blenny look similar, but grow bigger. Still they have all kinds of personality & I really like mine. Research different spp. if you like blennies & gobies. There's lots available, most are easy to keep. Mandarins & scooters seem to be the exception.

Hmm, that is interesting. I actually hadnt seen these scooter bleeny's beofe, nor any other s for that matter. I was at my lfs and was talking to them about fish choices and that is when she pinted them out to me saying they were very friendly, lots of personality, easy to keep etc.. I watched them for a while and thought they were really interesting it was really pretty neat the way they moved around the tank , very unique. Are the lawnmower bleenys very similar to these behaviour wise ?
I'll talk to my dealer again and maybe mention the lawnmower blenny , see if that wouldnt be a betrr choice. She has never mentioned those before so it wil be interesting to see what she says

cpatinhemo

Lawnmowers, like their name implies, are algae eaters and they'll scrape algae off you glass & LR. On the glass, they'll leave little lip markings that look like something from a Rolling Stones album cover (oops, dating myself with this reference). :lol: Firefish are also nice and peaceful community fish. Don't know if you're really looking for a mid-water or bottom dweller.

Well I picked up a Lawn Mower blenny this past weekend and after what appeared to be a bit of a rough start, he seeems to have settled in quite nicely now. He is still very shy but I was able to sit in front of the tank today with him directly in front of me for about 10 -15 minutes He definatley lilkes to perch himself up on the high rocks and stare. Every so often he'd try to scrape off some algae the quickly return to staring at me, prety funny
I think he will be a very good addition to my reef ... thanks fo the suggestion !!

You're welcome. They are very cute in their own way, aren't they. Big eyelashes & little speckles of colour. Offer it a variety of foods like frzn brine, mysis & blood worms & it'll happily supplement its diet of your nuisance algae.

Hehe, I kinda figured he was soooo ugly that he was cute !! Definately a different looking fish but yeah, I'd agree he is "cute" in his own way.
I'm glad you mentioned the food , I hadn't realized he would eat any meaty foods, I though he would only eat " greens" . I'll have to foffer him some mysis Ihave here and see how he likes it :)
He seems to have really settled in now. He seems to stay busy picking away at the rocks I've even seen him cleaning away bits of algae from a few of the hermits shells, he's gonna be a great addition !!

Lawnmowers are herbivores and should be feed veggies. I used to rubberband pieces of nori onto a piece of rock for my LB. Initially it didn't know it was food, but after putting a couple drops of garlic on the nori piece, my LB went right after it.

-Rich

So, should I be putting nori inthe tank or should there be enough algae for him. I was kinda under the impression that he'd just live off whatever algae grew in the tank
Also , to anyone who is using the liquidlife bio-plankton, I have just switched over to it from DT's. I have read a couple of posts on this product and it is recomened to use 1 pump / 30 gal water in a tank.that is over 4 months mature Is this every 2-3 day ? Once a week ? Everything i read neglects to state this. I know when I was using DT's , I would do 2 tsps every 2 or 3 days as idirected. Just not sreu how often to feed with this new stuff

How often you feed your LB depends on your tank size, and what sort of algae cleanup crew you have. LBs are like cows, and are constantly eating micro algae, so I'd say if your micro algae growth isn't noticable, I'd put in a small sheet once every few days. Many people have lost LBs because their LBs didn't get enough nutrition from the tank and slowly starved to death.

-Rich

Anyone got any suggestions on brand / type of algae to buy ? I see some stuff called seaweed selects, is this what I want ? It comes in brown, green or red ? Any preferance of one over the others ? Or is there something available that has a blend of all three ?

You can go to any store that sells Oriental foods and buy Nori sheets (Sushi "paper") that are pure seaweed & UNSEASONED. Mine will eat Nori but it has become more omnivorous & likes mysis/brine shrimp/blood worms as well. In the wild LMB may be purely vegetarian but the ones that adapt to eating other foods seem to thrive better in home aquariums with limited live algae to constantly graze on.

Good luck with yours.

Anthony

Ok, thanks. I just wanted to make sure that the Sushi shells were oky, I though maybe there was a certain type of algae used in the specific "nori" made for feeding fish if there is such a thing.
I do feed my " tank" mysis shrimp a couuple of times / week. The hermits and especially the cleaner/peppermint shrimps just go crazy over it so I'm sure the LB will have lots of opportunity to grab his fair share of that. I'll also start to keep a bit of "nori" available to him on a smal piece of pipe or something
Thanks again for th info

So how do keep the seaweed sheets from just breaking up and floating all over the tank ? I wrapped one around a piece of PVC pipe and hung it in one end of the tank. Seconds after putting it in, the cleaner shrip decided he better pck away at it. Within a couple of minutes, I've got pieces frolating all over the tank, its gonna make a huge mess .
What do all of you do to avoid this ? Do use a whole sheet at once or just a small piece wrapped some pipe ?
The rate at which this is breaking up, I've gotta take it out or there will be nothing but pieces f seaweed floating everwhere :(

Any suggestions ? Thnx

holding nori
 

Lots of wraps around the nori with a rubber band or two.
Have no fear they easily pick around the rubber untill it is pristine, but the rubber holds the nori together on t he pipe, rock, whatever....good luck
Works for me! :cool:

When you say " nori" you are just referri g to a brand name correct ? I couldn't find any nori but I just got dried seaweed wraps, unseasoned of course. This is the same thing right ? They are the same as sushi wraps
I'll try adding more elastics as I only had it wrapeed on each end and onece more inthe middle, sounds like I need lots more holding it on

nori
 

Yup thats the stuff.
Lately I was trying to find out if dried was better than roasted...the concenses: lots of packaging comes in chinese :rolleyes: ..so who really knows, but it all seems to be the same..as you said; just watch out for seasoned or flavored varieties.
Nori is a common name for the "dried seafood wraps" here.

There's a picture in this other Newbie thread:

http://www.canreef.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=11333

:mrgreen:

Nori is the seaweed sheets. Porphyra is the species of seaweed used to make the nori sheets.