Anemone Vs. Cleaner Shrimp *Ding Ding*

[FastandCurious]

Ok guys here's the match-up. When I started my tank almost a yr ago I knew I wanted a cleaner shrimp and I heard they do well in pairs so I got 2 cute tiny shrimps named Juaque and Jean Paul. I have 6 other fish, all on the smaller side bc I wanted everyone to grow with the tank. A bangii cardinal (my biggest), a pair of clowns, a cave gobi (the drama queen of the tank), a lawnmower blenny, a firefish and a my newest and shining star a green mandarin who is small but doing very well. So actually I have 7 fish lol

Anyways about 2 months ago I saw my clowns deciding to host my magfloat tankcleaner in the corner of the tank and felt bad and decided to get them a bta to see if they would like that instead. But sadly as soon as I added him he went straight to the bottom of the tank and found a hole and said leave me alone. After 2 weeks he was still alive but didn't seem interested in moving and the clowns never went down there anyways so I got another bta and "placed" him as best I could near the clowns at the top. This time he stayed at the top. After about a week of target feeding everyday he started to really open up and the clowns seemed slightly phased which was good but then all of a sudden....Boom. The age old war of BTA v. SHRIMP began.
I noticed everytime I started to feed the fish (mysis mostly) the shrimp would come and literally snatch the food out of the anemones mouths. (After a while anemone #1 made his way up the rock work it just took a while) They were lightning fast. I literally have to fight off the shrimp from the bta's at feeding so they have enough time to eat. Does this happen to anyone else who have both in their tanks?????? Sometimes after a little while the anemone will get big and happy and the shrimp leave him alone for a few days but usually at night the shrimp will go to town and they are tiny the next day again. I've seen how big they can get if left alone. One of them got huge once. And I know the shrimp help by eating their waste but they also will literally shove their greedy little hands right in their mouths and steal their food from them if I don't watch them. Now Jaque and Jean are huge and fat and I just wonder if my bta's will ever get big enough to host my clowns .
Is there any solution to this cycle or does one just have to go for the other to do well? Sorry for the long post I get carried away sometimes lol I post a pic of them now and one before of when one was big and happy. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[mehaffydr]

I would not be at all concerned. BTA's get energy from your lights and really do not need to be fed. They get smaller at night because the lights are out. Mine shrink and swell every day with the light cycle.

 

[Cell]

Give the shrimp some mysis first so they don't need to steal it.

 

[PicassoClown04]

Hi! I love that you’re feeding your nem and I highly recommend it. It’s definitely helped mine keep beautiful colors and bubbles. I bought some special sinking pellets for the shrimp. I drop 1/4 of one in (the ones I have are quite a large tablet but there’s super tiny pellets available as well) and let the shrimp take it. Then I feed the corals and there’s no more issue! Also, feeding the shrimp with your hand helps them associate cleaning you to their natural instincts and they’ll be less likely to try to steal from your corals because they know you’ll give them food!

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

Them scrymps get feisty.. till they ain't

@footgal

I've learned the same. Feed the scrymps, make them happy then feed the nems and duncan.

 

[Pico bam]

Oh God I try feeding reef roids to anything with a mouth and my pesky peppermint shrimp could just about robb every coral in the tank. Oh and you should only feed nems once or twice a week BTW. Tanks looks great!

 

[CMMorgan]

The tank looks amazing!!

 

[ZoWhat]

Clowns have hundreds of tank-raised generations bred into them that hosting with a BTA may take several months, a couple of years or may never happen.....especially since they have established their territory around the magfloat.

Property Taxes are probably too high to move from a magfloat to a BTA as well. They would have to inconvenience their friends to help move by only paying them back with pizza and beer. One of the clown friends will drop and break smthg.


.

 

[Mical]

When I feed my nems in my 120, I have a spotted grouper who INSISTS on being fed first. So I give him a large chunk and that keeps him occupied. I feed the nems grocery store frozen shrimp (cut up of course) or little neck clams - nems love and thrive off both.

 

[FastandCurious]

Hi! I love that you’re feeding your nem and I highly recommend it. It’s definitely helped mine keep beautiful colors and bubbles. I bought some special sinking pellets for the shrimp. I drop 1/4 of one in (the ones I have are quite a large tablet but there’s super tiny pellets available as well) and let the shrimp take it. Then I feed the corals and there’s no more issue! Also, feeding the shrimp with your hand helps them associate cleaning you to their natural instincts and they’ll be less likely to try to steal from your corals because they know you’ll give them food!

I def feed the tank and shrimp first bc let's face it they will eat what they want anyways and the nems after but I've been saving the heads of my large mysis and hand feed them to try and distract them. But what happened was they just got huge and now eat more lol. I swear sometimes I feel like I'm literally just feeding them since most of my other fish are small lol but I make sure everyone eats. But I do like the idea of the sinking pellets first bc I usually do those last for the clowns who seem to like them. That might occupy them for a bit. Thanks

 

[FastandCurious]

Them scrymps get feisty.. till they ain't

@footgal

I've learned the same. Feed the scrymps, make them happy then feed the nems and duncan.

Tube anemones?? I love the colors! I have a light pink one w a green mouth that I love and wish would grow even bigger! But the shrimps are smart and don't mess with him cuz clearly they know they could become the next meal lol. Yours look great.

 

[FastandCurious]

When I feed my nems in my 120, I have a spotted grouper who INSISTS on being fed first. So I give him a large chunk and that keeps him occupied. I feed the nems grocery store frozen shrimp (cut up of course) or little neck clams - nems love and thrive off both.

Yea I might give those a try if they get bigger. I feed them 1 PE mysis shrimp if they are open at feeding but sometimes these darn shrimp just pester them all day and they won't fully open for the whole day.

 

[FastandCurious]

Clowns have hundreds of tank-raised generations bred into them that hosting with a BTA may take several months, a couple of years or may never happen.....especially since they have established their territory around the magfloat.

Property Taxes are probably too high to move from a magfloat to a BTA as well. They would have to inconvenience their friends to help move by only paying them back with pizza and beer. One of the clown friends will drop and break smthg.


.

Haha that's true. I really tried tho. I even placed one of.the bta's directly on the magfloat and he stayed there for 2 weeks and the stilllll wouldn't go in lol so after a little he said duces and just took a walk back to the rocks. Then I just took out the magfloat and still they just love their corner. So maybe ur right they may never host but if I can get them to grow big again who knows, taxes might go down lol

 

[Bepis]

Haha that's true. I really tried tho. I even placed one of.the bta's directly on the magfloat and he stayed there for 2 weeks and the stilllll wouldn't go in lol so after a little he said duces and just took a walk back to the rocks. Then I just took out the magfloat and still they just love their corner. So maybe ur right they may never host but if I can get them to grow big again who knows, taxes might go down lol

Heard some people had success repeatedly playing their clowns a video of other clowns hosting bta’s. Give them some inspiration

 

[homer1475]

You do know BTA's are not natural hosts for clowns? They probably will never take to the BTA, and just remain in the corner with the mag float.

 

[homer1475]

This is also a non issue if you feed the tank, not each individual life form.

I have always heavily broadcast feed my tank. Everything gets to eat, and since there is so much food floating around, my shrimp never try to steal food from my nems or corals.

I am a firm believer in heavy in, heavy out.

 

[PicassoClown04]

I def feed the tank and shrimp first bc let's face it they will eat what they want anyways and the nems after but I've been saving the heads of my large mysis and hand feed them to try and distract them. But what happened was they just got huge and now eat more lol. I swear sometimes I feel like I'm literally just feeding them since most of my other fish are small lol but I make sure everyone eats. But I do like the idea of the sinking pellets first bc I usually do those last for the clowns who seem to like them. That might occupy them for a bit. Thanks

The sinking pellets have been really good because the shrimp need to pick at it for a long time to actually get food out. So by the time they finish their food, its been like 5 minutes which is more than enough time for you to feed your corals!

 

[SDK]

You do know BTA's are not natural hosts for clowns? They probably will never take to the BTA, and just remain in the corner with the mag float.

Occelaris clowns readily take to BTA’s. I’ve had about six different pairs over the years and every one of them hosted BTA’s. Sometimes it took just a couple of days, with a month or two being the worst case.

Here is a pic of my current pair spawning between a two different BTAs.

 

[Rmckoy]

Tank looks amazing ...

I have always fed shrimp first and everything else after .

the cleaner shrimp set up a small service station in one of the caves . The fish swim to him for a cleaning .

I don’t think they require cleaning others for parasites as much as a cleaner wrasse does .

 

[M Stein]

I've had that happen. My shrimp used to steal the anemone's food.
Now I have clownfish hosting, so they steal the food now.

The anemone's aren't hurt by this, but if you really want to feed them use pieces of silversides. I have to chase the fish away for a few minutes, but it's only once a week.