Doctor Shrimp In The House

Published by simon on January 9, 2010

Did I tell you guys just before Christmas I got a doctor shrimp (or cleaner shrimp) for my saltwater tank?

My wife always wanted one, but I was worried it wouldn’t survive in my new tank. But anyway finally got it from Oceanic and so far its doing well. Can’t really get a good close up of it, but here’s the best one i got.

When i first introduced it to the tank, it was a little disoriented, moving round the entire tank and climbing the walls. After a few minutes it settled under this live rock and now mainly stays there whenever the light is on. But when the light goes off, it well trawl the entire tank floor looking for food. The good thing about doctor shrimps is that they’ll eat anything, including fish waste so it kinda help keeps the tank clean.

And boy, do they eat. They seem to eat non-stop.

Here’s a shot with the rest of the inhabitants of the house. At the moment I have 2 Fiji Blue Devil Damsels, a clownfish and a royal gramma (strawberry fish). Yep, I have all the aggressive territorial ones

My shrimp just shed its exoskeleton this morning. In the last 18 days or it has been here, it has shed twice. So i guess its doing ok. Here’s the shed exoskeleton stuck to the wave pump.

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