Cleaner Shrimps and Racoon b/fs

[jollygreen68]

Hello all. I just purchased a cleaner shrimp instead of buying the dreaded cleaner wrasse (for a few reasons). So it is called a cleaner shrimp and yet not once has it even attempted to clean one of my 4 fish (5"emperor, 6"naso, 2.5"purple tang, and 3" threadfin b/f). The shrimp has been in the tank for 5 days already and will eat out of my hand if I give it some food, but other than that, it does NOTHING!!! I bought the darn thing to clean the fish and keep them healthy. I just added the purple tang and threadfin b/f (also a racoon b/f that died a few days ago, he wouldn't eat) to my tank and there was some initial chasing by the big bad emperor and the 3 new fish were scratching, some more than others. And then my darn emperor even started to scratch a little which gave a damn heartattack. Well luckily now, the fish have stopped scratching and all are doing well it seems. But I know the fish have not lost the parasites, there are still present, and the CLEANER shrimp continues to not CLEAN them. So what gives, why won't it clean, why is it called a cleaner shrimp if it doesn't clean??? Any stories or words of advice pertaining to cleaner shrimp would be much appreciated. And then about the racoon b/f. This is the second one I have ordered from ff, and the second one that has died. I have a 125g tank with a huge protein skimmer, over 90lbs of lr (plenty of hiding spots), lots of little things to munch on the rock, great water parameters, and no mean or harrasing tankmates (besides the first day when my emperor chases all the new acquisitions for awhile). And they both died the same way basically, not eating, but looking like they wanted to eat, but not what I was giving them. Then within a 3-7 days, no swimming, and then on their last day, rapid jerky swimming and then lodging themselves in a rock and dying. I have just about had it with these darn fish that are supposedly easy to keep and aren't. And the ones that are hard to keep aren't. I have raised my emperor from a 4" semi adult into a very thick, very healthy, beautiful adult over the last year and he was only the second fish into my tank and only 4 months after I had got the tank up and running. Emperors are supposed to have high mortality rates in captivity and should only be tried by expert aquariasts with large tanks, and yet mine has been like a horse, I would have to beat it with a stick to kill it. And the racoon b/f is said to be a great first marine fish to try as it is hardy, eats well, and is more tolerant of water conditions than other b/fs. So if anyone that has a racoon, or HAD one, could let me know whats up with theirs, how long they have had it, what they got it started on eating, etc I would also appreciate it. Thanks to everyone for reading this insanely long post and replying, Jollygreen.

 

[stupid_naso]

Well let me put it this way, it needs time. Give it TIME. Size does matter too. See how big is the cleaner shrimp relative to your fish. If your fish are way bigger, no wonder it's not doing anything. It needs time to get comfortable. Once it's comfortable then it'll start cleaning. It's also up to your fish. If they don't want to get cleaned then there's nothing you can do. It hurts getting cleaned you know?! So give your tank time. Let them know that they have one another.
Do you mind stating why you don't want a cleaner wrasse? My friend bought one and it has been eating brine shrimp and all it does is clean all day. So ask your lfs, anytime you buy any fish, to feed them. If it eats brine shrimp I don't see any reason why you cannot have the cleaner wrasse. Sorry to hear you loss on the butterfly.
stupid_naso

 

[sistrmary]

It's very rare that you come across a cleaner wrasse that will take readily to frozen food...most of them are just really curious..they don't actually eat the food so much as swim around in it smelling it and trying to figure out what it is. I'm not saying that none of them do, but a lot of cleaner wrasses die slow, miserable starving deaths in aquariums.
Neon gobies serve the same purpose, but typically eat frozen food as well. (And they're 1/10 of the size of a cleaner wrasse and don't need as much to eat)
Wait on the cleaner shrimp...it usually takes them a while to adjust and get used to the fish. Very dangerous business they're in...if they pick buggies off the wrong fish, they could lose their heads.
As horrible as it sounds, anemones will initiate feeding for most of the heartier butterflies. Anemones and sponges, their natural fare in the wilds. Most butterflies are better left on the reef...over half of them starve to death because in the wild, they eat corals, anemones, crabs, sponges, etc (all the stuff we hoard in the aquarium)
Btw: how big is your tank? Big fish! lol

 

[brooklyn johnny]

Many people overlook the benefits of quarantining new specimens. I think this process is made even more important when ordering online, regardless of the quality of specimen the supplier ships, because the fish will be in transit much longer than a drive home from a lfs. On top of not wanting to introduce foreign maladies, there are more benefits, especially with delicate feeders like butterflies. I like to get new specimens alone in a dimly lit 10 or 20 gallon QT where they can relax and recover rather than have to run away from and compete with established fish in the display tank. You can shower them will all different foods, removing what doesn't work. When they start eating, I let them feed for a few weeks and when they are in tip top shape I add them to a dimly lit tank. Anyway you may want to look for a butterfly locally that is healthy and feeding, because when it comes to butterflies and angels they are all individuals and really certain species you have better odds with than others, but overall it all comes down to the INDIVIDUAL specimen. Look at Mikey from Life cereal compared to Calista Flockhart... the same species... yet one will eat anything and the other WON'T eat anything. Not the best comparison but the raccoon you have a good shot with, if you get a good specimen and QT 'em. Let us know...

 

[brooklyn johnny]

By the way my experience with cleaner wrasses isn't good either. Even if you get them to do well, they can stress your fish out in the confines of an aquarium. In the wild they have stations and cleaning is an occasional thing. Best thing to do is go for the cure rather than the bandaid. If you have ich that bad it's not normal and you need to look into the cause.

 

[jollygreen68]

Thanks for the replys. It has been over a week and it still really doesn't do much. It kind of looks like it wants to clean the naso, the purple and threadfin, but not the emperor. But none of the fish really want to get cleaned now. And when they do go up to the shrimp, it doesn't clean them, just kind of feels them with it's antenae. So basically, right now, it is useless as a cleaner shrimp, and more of just a semi neat addition to the tank. And as far as getting a cleaner wrasse goes stupid naso, I have read far too many books and heard too many bad things about them. They die almost ALWAYS, even if they are eating at the fish store. Plus that is not the point. I want to keep the fish clean of parasites, and cleaner wrasse's are fish, which means they can get ich and stuff as well. Were as a shrimp can not get ich or diseases, so that is why I decided against a cleaner wrasse. Plus I have also read that taking them from the wild has a significant impact on the reef, in a bad way. Also to those who recomended qt'ng, I don't have the money or equipment at the moment to run a qt tank, so that is why I didn't qt. I did with my first two fish but don't have enough time and money to get the qt tank up and running again. Thanks again for all the reply's. Jollygreen

 

[musipilot]

Give it time, they'll come around.
Keep in mind that fish that don't come from areas that the scarlet skunk shrimp is native to will take a lot longer to "use" the shrimp's services, if they do so at all.
For example, if you put a Hawaiian Cleaner Wrasse with Yellow Tangs, they'll immediately know what to do. But Racoon Butterflies from the Red Sea won't be familiar with the services of a scarlet cleaner from Fiji. Dig?
As far as the Racoon, MOST of them won't eat, in my opinion theres only one way to buy this fish. I order all my fish ONLINE, except our racoon. I wanted one, but heard the horror stories, so I hit the local LFS until I found one that ate. As soon as the pellets hit the water the raccon went nuts. He ate every last one of them, and thats the one we bought. He's still with us today, and doing great.
Good luck!