Cleaner Shrimp & Pods

[DianaKay]

Do cleaner shrimp eat Amphipods & Copepods?
I feel pretty sure ? that they do.
I'm trying to get my pod population to increase and I've been wondering if having 2 red skunk cleaner shrimp will make it near impossible.
My tank is 65gal and I want to get a Green Mandarin in the near future.
I have no wrasses or pod specific eaters in my tank....still I'm not seeing very many pods.

 

[Mike Johnson]

Of course they do, Diana. Wrasses, angels, shrimps all do. Blennys and Tangs are safe with pods. A lot of advanced reef keepers won't introduce any pod eaters to new aquariums for at least a year so that they can get a self-sustaining pod population. I'm one of them. Mandarins are very efficient pod hunters and can decimate a pod population quickly. Angels love to hunt them, but they don't get enough of them to decimate the population.

 

[landshark]

+1 shrimps will eat pods, in fact almost any fish will eat pods if they see them on the glass. My clown and fire fish eat any pods they see moving around that is why it's so difficult for me to get a good population going in the DT.

 

[DianaKay]

Thanks y'all...I'm back to "forget the mandarin!" feeling.
My cleaner shrimp might be easy to catch out but I'm not sure I want to get rid of them.
They for sure are good CUC....maybe a little too good.
I'll have to think about this longer.

 

[Mike Johnson]

Cleaner Shrimp are very cool. Diana, have you read up on training Mandarins to eat? But it is still a pain because you have to target feed them and it is still not enough as they still need to hunt pods all day long. Owning Mandarins takes a tank that is specifically set up to house them or it can be costly in buying pods. Or you can raise your own pods?

 

[ziggy]

Cleaner Shrimp are very cool. Diana, have you read up on training Mandarins to eat? But it is still a pain because you have to target feed them and it is still not enough as they still need to hunt pods all day long. Owning Mandarins takes a tank that is specifically set up to house them or it can be costly in buying pods. Or you can raise your own pods?

Or we supplement with the Paul B Mandarin feeder

 

[DianaKay]

I have my refugium set up to grow macro-algae & pods....but making a pod feeder that my 2 cleaner shrimp can't access would be tricky. They are "on it" as soon as anything hits the water in the way of food.
I'm in the process of putting a plastic "pod shaker" together out of plastic crafting canvas. I'll see how it works out as I try to UP my DT pod population with it.
I'm thinking now that I can't have both a mandarin & the 2 cleaners shrimps in only a 65gal DT.

 

[Mike Johnson]

Personally I'd rather have the two cleaners. Mandarins have a habit of hiding. Cleaners have a life expectancy of only three years max, then maybe go with the Mandarin?

 

[lbiminiblue]

Thanks y'all...I'm back to "forget the mandarin!" feeling.
My cleaner shrimp might be easy to catch out but I'm not sure I want to get rid of them.
They for sure are good CUC....maybe a little too good.
I'll have to think about this longer.

so am i diana. But not really because i don't think i can handle one. But because i feel like it's too much work to house one fish. I mean I understand all fish need care, but I'm not ready to devote tons of time into training a mandarin. I'd buy one trained for frozen food, but that's it.

 

[landshark]

Diane don't get me wrong it is possible to keep a mandrin in a tank with cleaner shrimp but it takes lots of time. A fellow reefer of mine have a pare in a 125g that are doing well so their is hope. Also like lbiminiblue state get one that is trained for frozen food. Take a look at this thread

 

[ziggy]

Diane don't get me wrong it is possible to keep a mandrin in a tank with cleaner shrimp but it takes lots of time. A fellow reefer of mine have a pare in a 125g that are doing well so their is hope. Also like lbiminiblue state get one that is trained for frozen food. Take a look at this thread

Does your friend in the 125g have shrimp or crab?

 

[landshark]

Does your friend in the 125g have shrimp or crab?

he have both shrimp and crabs.