Cleaner Shrimp Q?

m5beast

New Member
Will Cleaners do alright in a fake coral aquarium? And will they have any problems with a Panther Grouper
 

happypants

New Member
My panther grouper and cleaner have been great together for almost three months. The panther grouper regularly stops by to be "cleaned" and has never chased or acted aggressive towards the cleaner shrimp. I have read many forums that suggest larger aggressive fish will leave the cleaner shrimp alone since they are beneficial to them.
 

tx reef

Active Member
That is not guarunteed grouper behavior in an aquarium. All sorts of fish that would normally leave cleaner shrimp alone eat them.
 

ophiura

Active Member
It is hit or miss. It is entirely possible it will be eaten. I have seen this happen - even with cleaner wrasse. So you must accept that it may happen and take that risk either way. The fish may not think much about "that is a cleaner and it is good" before it takes a bite at it. And at that point...well....
 

m5beast

New Member
I think it be best to have the cleaner shrimp in the tank first, that way their not being introduced and though of as food... Usually the fish just somehow instinctively know not to eat them and know they're beneficial, but that doesn't always go. Things don't always go as planned, I mean I had a goldflake moray munch on a fist sized Volitan Lion...
Will cleaner shrimp do ok on fake coral though? does that not really matter to them?
 

happypants

New Member
I don't know about going with fake coral but in my experience the live rock never really interested him. So, I think you could do fake as long as you set him up with a "cleaning area" and feed him lots of meat. :jumping:
 

yimmy

Active Member
It depends...what I've found out from my experience is if you keep your fish well fed then they wont bother chasing your shrimp.
 
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