Coral Banded shrimp an active cleaner?

[spdntckt]

Just thought i'd share an interesting experience... I came home form work today to see my coral banded shrimp with a tang between his arms while 'cleaning' him

I didnt realize that coral banded shrimps were active cleaners -> I thought it was an intesting enough event to post about.. Have others seen this? are the things that this little guy will clean radically different than the traditional cleaner shrimps?

On a side note, perhaps I have been lucky with this guy, but thus far i've never seen him pick at any of the corals or exhibit any of the other negative behaviors others have mentioned.... (other crustaceans include arrow crabs, blue legged hermits, and sally lightfoots...)

 

[davelin315]

A lot of shrimp will clean when they get the chance. A cbs is a type of cleaner, but it is more territorial than most, so it will more often chase away anyone who comes over rather than clean them. Mine has taken its turn cleaning the fish in the tank, but he's more apt to just sit under his ledge and rear up (or down, I guess) when someone passes by.

 

[Reeffreak]

That is cool, I have had several cbs with not one being an active cleaner. I always had to bring them back because I could never have any other shrimp in there, they would always kill them.

Steve

 

[hectina]

I just added a 3" yellow eye tang to my tank (My fourth one

). It was the first time my cleaners (even the blood shrimp) actually cleaned a fish. All of my other fish are two inches long or shorter.

I think the fish must be larger than the shrimp in order for it to be cleaned, otherwise the fish feel that they're being attacked. Also tangs are more susceptiible to parasites, therefore, they are more apt to be cleaned.

The tang was pink and very stressed when I picked him up(felt bad for him). He spent an hour getting cleaned by three shrimp.

 

[davelin315]

The fish don't necessarily need to be bigger than the shrimp, they just need to be comfortable with the shrimp. If you check out this link, you'll see one of my fire shrimp cleaning a domino damsel.

It's in the middle of the page