Parasites and cleaner shrimp

[King Reef]

Came across a study on using shrimp to eat parasites in the fish farming industry.

Excerpt on findings
The effectiveness of shrimp in reducing parasites on farmed fish remained unexplored until now. We tested four cleaner shrimp species for their ability to reduce three harmful parasites (a monogenean fluke, a ciliate protozoan, and a leech) on a farmed grouper. All shrimp reduced parasites on fish and most reduced the free-living early-life environmental stages – a function not provided by cleaner fish. Cleaner shrimp are sustainable biocontrol candidates against parasites of farmed fish, with the peppermint cleaner shrimp reducing parasites by up to 98%.



https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-32293-6

 

[Idoc]

Very interesting!!

 

[salty joe]

The common knowledge has been that cleaner shrimp do nothing for ich. This article disputes that.

I saw my cleaner shrimp pull something white off my clown that was bigger than the head of a pin. Whatever it was, the shrimp ate it like it was starving. I also saw that same shrimp working on my adult blue ring angel.

 

[Fishfreak2009]

Don't know how I didn't see this sooner, very interesting study!

 

[traumamed]

"Two L. vittata were eaten by their clients during cohabitation at the completion of the nocturnal trials"

Bad grouper. Bad.