michelle l
Member
Hello everyone
I have two cleaner shrimp, and lately they have begun to display some behaviors that have me concerned. We moved the 125 gal. FOWLR tank to our new home about three weeks ago, and I'm not sure if that has anything to do with it, but I thought I'd mention it in case it did. All water parameters are good and all of the other fish and inverts seem fine.
They used to hang out on a pile of live rock on the far side of the tank. These two have always been very outgoing, and came out to eat every time they even suspected food was in the area. About a week ago I noticed that one was all tucked down in a hole in the live rock with the other standing just outside of it. Both of them have become less active.
Yesterday they were missing, so I went looking. I found them clear over on the other side of the tank, and I can't even see them. They are both down in a crevice in the live rock, and I know they are there only because I can see their antennae sticking up out of the hole. They are alive, because when I hold food close to the crevice the antennae dissapear. Since that's all I can see of them, I have no idea what they are doing! But I do know that they aren't taking food, and they used to be voracious eaters.
Are they exhibiting mating behaviors? Or do shrimp go into hiding when there is a predator in the tank? I recently added a large strawberry hermit crab that my LFS advised would most likely be OK with all of my inverts. So far he seems docile and hasn't hurt anyone, and I have been keeping a very close eye on his habits, but I was wondering if my shrimp were hiding from him. I was thinking that if that were the case, they would at least come out to hand-feed when I hold food right next to where they are hiding.
Any idea what is going on??
I have two cleaner shrimp, and lately they have begun to display some behaviors that have me concerned. We moved the 125 gal. FOWLR tank to our new home about three weeks ago, and I'm not sure if that has anything to do with it, but I thought I'd mention it in case it did. All water parameters are good and all of the other fish and inverts seem fine.
They used to hang out on a pile of live rock on the far side of the tank. These two have always been very outgoing, and came out to eat every time they even suspected food was in the area. About a week ago I noticed that one was all tucked down in a hole in the live rock with the other standing just outside of it. Both of them have become less active.
Yesterday they were missing, so I went looking. I found them clear over on the other side of the tank, and I can't even see them. They are both down in a crevice in the live rock, and I know they are there only because I can see their antennae sticking up out of the hole. They are alive, because when I hold food close to the crevice the antennae dissapear. Since that's all I can see of them, I have no idea what they are doing! But I do know that they aren't taking food, and they used to be voracious eaters.
Are they exhibiting mating behaviors? Or do shrimp go into hiding when there is a predator in the tank? I recently added a large strawberry hermit crab that my LFS advised would most likely be OK with all of my inverts. So far he seems docile and hasn't hurt anyone, and I have been keeping a very close eye on his habits, but I was wondering if my shrimp were hiding from him. I was thinking that if that were the case, they would at least come out to hand-feed when I hold food right next to where they are hiding.
Any idea what is going on??
