Cleaner Shrimp Won't Clean!

[mike31154]

Yeah, I think 'cleaner' shrimp is a bit of a misnomer. Some fish don't even want to be cleaned. I've seen mine actively cleaning at times, yet on the other hand, one of my fish will obviously park itself close looking to be cleaned only to be completely ignored. Still, they can be useful and entertaining to have. I've witnessed one of my cleaner shrimp yank a bristleworm out of it's hidy hole and devour it.

I started with one and added a second hoping they would produce eggs as food for other tank inhabitants. Seemed to work pretty well for about a year until one of them inexplicably died. One of these days I'll look to add another.