Lympho assist from fire shrimp?

BifrostReefer

Community Member
View Badges
Joined
Aug 25, 2020
Messages
67
Reaction score
66
Location
The Texas Border
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I have a tang with lympho, I'm curious if there are any reef inhabitants that would help clean them off? Maybe cleaner wrasse or shrimp?
A few times today I have noticed my yellow tang approach my blood red fire shrimp and allow a quick cleaning. I'm wondering if it's just coincidence or if the shrimp is actually cleaning the lympho off? Anyone see anything like that before? I took a video of it and screen captured a few images of it, but I didn't have any filters ready, so it's pretty blue.

MOV_0447_000_000005.jpg MOV_0490_000_000019.jpg MOV_0490_000_000013.jpg MOV_0490_000_000020.jpg
 

Jay Hemdal

10K Club member
View Badges
Joined
Jul 31, 2020
Messages
25,690
Reaction score
25,533
Location
Dundee, MI
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I'm sure the Lymphocystis is irritating to the fish, so it is going to posture for the shrimp. The shrimp, seeing the spots, is going to be drawn to cleaning it. However, the Lymphocystis lesions are actually skin cells that have become giant sized due to the virus. Physical removal (called debulking) can spread more of the virus out into the water. Luckily, most long term captive fish are resistant to this. There is an old joke: Every cure works for Lymphocystis - given 6 to 10 weeks (grin).

Your YT has it in a classic place that stands almost a 100% chance of resolving on its own.....

Jay
 

Caring for your picky eaters: What do you feed your finicky fish?

  • Live foods

    Votes: 23 30.7%
  • Frozen meaty foods

    Votes: 60 80.0%
  • Soft pellets

    Votes: 12 16.0%
  • Masstick (or comparable)

    Votes: 7 9.3%
  • Other

    Votes: 4 5.3%
Back
Top