Cleaner shrimp

melo

Can I add a cleaner shrimp or some type of shrimp to my tank? It is 80 gallons, FOWLR. Currently in the tank is a blue tang, christmas wrasse, one clownfish, lemon peel angel, longspine urchin, and a chocolate chip starfish. I really want to add some type of shrimp to the tank, probably a cleaner shrimp to keep my Blue tang disease free as I have heard they are very prone to sickness. All of these fish have been in the tank for at least four months or longer so I don't know if that matters as far as territory issues. Some people have said that my starfish will kill any shrimp and others have said it would o.k. so I'm looking for a final census before I go out and buy one

Cody

It would be all right if the CC star wasn't there. They are predatory and will attack other inverts, and sometimes small fish.

jeffwee559

Ya, the only concern would be the the chocolate chip but they are very slow moving and i've actually housed them together in small aquariums. If the chocolate chip corners him he may be able to capture him, if not it should be alright. Just make sure and feed him regularly to make sure you feed the chocolate chip doesn't get hungry enough to want to eat the shrimp. Therefore, there's a small probability that the star fish will actually catch the shrimp, my shrimp used to get on my starfish and clean it. So there's a little insight on the question and good luck

melo

Thanks for the input I think I'm gonna do it, my concern was that maybe the christmas wrasse would be a problem also but I guess he won't be. I feed my starfish krill every few days so hopefully he doesn't kill the shrimp, also the cc kills my snails which sucks, but he is really slow moving. Is there a certain species of shrimp that is more agile than another?

ajmckay

I've had good luck with peppermint shrimp... Maybe you could get some of those at $6-$10 each before dropping $30 on a cleaner shrimp... A peppermint shrimp will also do many of the same cleaning duties, in a lesser capacity.

On another note, I don't believe cleaner shrimps are necessarily meant for disease prevention beyond the scope of picking un-wanted parasitic organisms from the external bodies of fish/other inverts. Of course this activity can reduce the stresses on the fish, thus reducing it's chances of becoming weakened by a parasite and developing/catching a disease. So I suppose they might provide an indirect form of disease prevention... Either way good luck!