Are cleaner shrimp worth the negatives

[kevgib67]

When someone sees my tank for the first time I usually hear “what is that ?” Eyes seem to be drawn to my skunk cleaner shrimp and then my blood red cleaner shrimp ( after I point it out, shy). As to the function of my shrimp, there is never uneaten food laying around after feeding because they go crazy. The only draw back was when I introduced a rfa into the tank and the skunk cleaner shrimp unrelentingly picked at it until it disappeared. RIP rfa, it was beautiful.

 

[TWYOUNG]

Cleaner shrimp are ornamental pieces, they don't do much. Instead, I got a cleaner goby. Doesn't bother coral and is fun to watch when they clean.

Someone posted that cleaner gobies are actually ich prone themselves. Have you heard or experienced this?

 

[AydenLincoln]

I love my shrimp and his awesome little personality. He mainly just hangs out on the rock except when I feed the tank then he jumps off the rock and swims backwards to the food. He doesn’t bother corals too much and has never cleaned a fish.

 

[Shibaken3]

Someone posted that cleaner gobies are actually ich prone themselves. Have you heard or experienced this?

maybe ill get another one so they can clean themselves. lol

 

[modom1207]

I love my shrimp and his awesome little personality. He mainly just hangs out on the rock except when I feed the tank then he jumps off the rock and swims backwards to the food. He doesn’t bother corals too much and has never cleaned a fish.

I added a couple cleaner shrimp a few weeks ago, and I was initially a little scared of them because of their spider-like mannerisms. They’re now my favorite additions to my tank. They will eat out of my hand if I let them. They also run my tank’s anti-bullying campaign where they keep my yellow tail damsel in check whenever he gets cheeky with my clowns or goby. The shrimp will literally run up on the damsel and swat at him with their little pinchers if he approaches anyone too quickly in the tank for their liking. I’ve also witnessed one of my cleaners going hard at work on a cut on the damsel when I first got him. They set up their cleaning stations, but none of my other fish want to frequent their car wash ): sad but they really are just cool little things to have in the tank and I’ve never seen them rip food from my LPS. (Though they will make a Duncan curl up when they touch it)