Cleaner shrimp eating.

[Reef.]

Got a cleaner shrimp a week ago, it was eating great, shed after 4 days, stopped eating for a few hours after, then started eating again.
Today it seemed to be eating something from its belly, or maybe laying eggs on its belly? I offered it some food it ignored it, a few hours later I tried again, it didn’t want to know.
I’m wondering could it have been eating it’s own eggs? Could it have come from the LFS pregnant, might explain why it turned down the food, as normally it can’t take the food fast enough?

 

[Uncle99]

Not eating eggs, more likely plucking bad ones from the group.
They will eat the fry though.
Clowns do the same, they remove certain eggs so they don’t effect the others.
No worries.

 

[Reef.]

Not eating eggs, more likely plucking bad ones from the group.
They will eat the fry though.
Clowns do the same, they remove certain eggs so they don’t effect the others.
No worries.

thanks, I thought it was strange it turning down food.

 

[RavenSF]

If it helps, i can tell when my cleaner shrimp are going to molt because they usually will skip dinner.

 

[Reef.]

If it helps, i can tell when my cleaner shrimp are going to molt because they usually will skip dinner.

I didn’t really notice any change before it molted, just afterwards.

I was going to leave the shed in the tank as I read they can eat it but as it’s a small nano, I didn’t want it sitting too long in the tank, so removed it.

it missed out on 2 good meals, I’ll see how it’s feeling tomorrow.