can shrimp clean ich off fish?

[ufo8micats]

Can a CBS clean disease or parasite from fish? My domino damsel, and skunk clown fish are laying on side in front of shrimp and letting it pick stuff off of them, then get up and swim around. Is this possible?
When I first turn the tank on in the evening, I see white spots on the fish, and then by evening the spots are all gone. I have no idea what this may be.
the fish are over a year old, and the shrimp is about 8 mos. old.
thanks

 

[monkdaily]

i had the same problemwith my puffer. i had to keep an eye on them for about 2 1/2 weeks b4 i figured it was ick. in the morning no ick, daytime no ick, evening/lights out white spots. then after about 2 1/2 weeks. the spots were more prevelant and well long story short ICK. IMO err on the side of caution and QT and start hypo.

 

[ufo8micats]

I wonder what causes them to show up in the morning and vanish in the evening? I started the course of hypo a couple of days ago, seems to be working. If I could catch them then i would be doing fresh dips, but that is a dream.

 

[m0nk]

Technically cleaner shrimp can pick external parasites off fish, that is what they do in the wild. The catch with ich is, there's evidence lately that the parasite also burrows below the scales to the point where the shrimp (or other types of cleaners) can't get to it, meaning the ich wins.

 

[jonthefishguy]

Cleaner Shrimp may provide some ich relief, but they really can't cure ich. They are more or less removing the necrotic tissue from the fish.

 

[monkdaily]

and fresh water dips dont work for all fish some will not tolerate it all. IMO hypo is the best bet. and stick with it 5 weeks with no spots to be sure

 

[fishy7]

When ever I see any issues with my fish such as ick/fungal or any other things, feed them food to boost their immune system and they will work it out. I use Raw garlic/selcon/formula 1&2/Thera A++. This seems to work best.

 

[sepulatian]

There are many quick fixes to ich, but the fact is that if you do have ich in your system then you are going to have to treat all of your fish.

 

[reefkprz]

yes a cleaner shrimp can pick parasites such as ich off a fish as well as necrotic tissue surrounding the area of damage. they cannot cure it or prevent it from re-ocurring. while the shrimp may feed on them its not a true solution in any sense of the word, as they only eat a bit of whats available but can do nothing to actually break the lifecycle of the parasite.

 

[sepulatian]

This is a CBS, not a cleaner shrimp. The fish could be expecting to be cleaned. A CBS will pick at them as a food source, but not to specifically clean off parasites.