Cleaner shrimp help

starla315 · Mar 25, 2021

My cleaner shrimp hasn't been eating well the last few days. He normally scurried out and gobbles up every morsel he can, but we moved some landscaping around last week, and he relocated from a tunnel to underneath a rock. He never leaves it. He hasn't come "running" out to wat in about 5 days. He did molt yesterday, but it's been less than a month since he melted last time. I watched him for a while during the feeding this morning...I got some pellets to land right under him, and he tried grabbing a few pellets and he kept dropping them (odd because he normally throws 5 or 6 in his mouth very rapidly). I watched him grab 2 pellets, and he went back to being upside down on his rock...He held one in his mouth a while and it fell out...then he put the other in and moved it around for a solid two minutes and then dropped it as well. Any ideas on what could be wrong here?

Parameters are
salinity 1.025
temp 79
nitrate and nitrite are at 0
PH 8
Calcium was 600 over the weekend but we got that back down into the 400s now.
Water looks great....all other fish, invertebrates, and corals are doing fantastic

boacvh · Mar 25, 2021

Not sure if true but I read somewhere they tend to hide after molting as defense until new shell hardens.
Mine hide for sure after molting. Maybe give it a couple more days.

MPrz59 · Mar 25, 2021

starla315 said:
My cleaner shrimp hasn't been eating well the last few days. He normally scurried out and gobbles up every morsel he can, but we moved some landscaping around last week, and he relocated from a tunnel to underneath a rock. He never leaves it. He hasn't come "running" out to wat in about 5 days. He did molt yesterday, but it's been less than a month since he melted last time. I watched him for a while during the feeding this morning...I got some pellets to land right under him, and he tried grabbing a few pellets and he kept dropping them (odd because he normally throws 5 or 6 in his mouth very rapidly). I watched him grab 2 pellets, and he went back to being upside down on his rock...He held one in his mouth a while and it fell out...then he put the other in and moved it around for a solid two minutes and then dropped it as well. Any ideas on what could be wrong here?

Parameters are
salinity 1.025
temp 79
nitrate and nitrite are at 0
PH 8
Calcium was 600 over the weekend but we got that back down into the 400s now.
Water looks great....all other fish, invertebrates, and corals are doing fantastic

They hide after molting sometimes because they're still soft but if you just moved around the scape he could be a little frazzled. Shrimp can get pretty scared so just give him time

Poof No Eyebrows · Mar 25, 2021

Agree with advice so far. My shrimps all do the same as does my Sally light foot which is always weird since I usually have to Doce 15mg of Ritalin to keep her from going Crack head crazy on my zoa islands.