Cleaner shrimp not getting along?

Nuuudel · Jul 21, 2021

Hi everyone,

I have a 1.5 month old tank with 2 cleaner shrimp, 2 clownfish, and some snails.

The first creature I got is a skunk cleaner shrimp named "Skunk". I had read that it's good to keep them in pairs so I got a second cleaner shrimp named "Whiskers". Skunk has been in my tank for about 1 months and Whiskers just got here yesterday. I got Skunk from my LFS and Whiskers was shipped.

I didn't realize that Skunk is quite small/young but Whiskers is 1.5x-2x larger than Skunk! They don't fight on sight but if Skunk comes near Whiskers attacks him and Skunk jumps/swims away very fast. I feel really bad because Skunk seems very interested and curious.

I had always read people talking about how cleaner shrimp are super nice and chill and not aggressive but then I started searching "cleaner shrimp fighting" and I found several posts where people say their larger shrimp killed the smaller one

So now I'm wondering should I just try and sell/rehome Whiskers before something happens? I've gotten pretty attached to Skunk, I would hate for something to happen to them

andiesreef · Jul 21, 2021

usually in my experience if you add a shrimp to an existing group it's better if the new guy is smaller. this way the existing shrimp don't see it as a challenger and will accept it into the group. if you bought a shrimp larger than your first it probably feels threatened by a new challenger coming onto it’s turf. i would try to add a smaller shrimp instead.

this technique has worked for me on all of my peppermint shrimp. they are best buds.

Nuuudel · Jul 21, 2021

Makes total sense. I bought the first one in person and got the second one online so I didn't realize they would be bigger.

ying yang · Jul 21, 2021

Ive only had my 2 skunk cleaner shrimps about 2 months or so.but first week or so they would both have little bickers ( well smaller one approaching bigger one or touching him with tentacles and bigger one jumping at or on him and little one moving away sharpish) but after a week they chill out together all the time.
Maybe it just a dominance thing that most if not all animals/creatures do even humans when first meet to work out the pecking order ?

Nuuudel · Jul 21, 2021

So what do I do now? My LFS said they couldn't take one of them

Nuuudel · Jul 21, 2021

@ying yang

that sounds exactly like what mine are doing! I'm fine waiting to see if they sort it out, my main fear is the big one killing the little one

andiesreef · Jul 21, 2021

Nuuudel said:
So what do I do now? My LFS said they couldn't take one of them

i'd wait and if it gets really aggressive put one in an acclimation box if you have one. maybe they will sort it out.

ying yang · Jul 21, 2021

Well you only got few choices.
See if another lfs or a fellow reefer will take one from you.
Just wait and see what happens.
Or as andiesreef stated if gets to agressive,then put one in the acliminastion box so they can see each other and get used to each other but cannot hurt each other.
Aclimnisation boxes i read are great for this purpose ( little pricey for my liking though,but they help tremendously it seems) .
Could go diy route if got spare egg crate and zip ties laying around and if worried about anything hanging out the eggcrate box you make.you can get cheap mesh like nurseries that have plastic frame and couple suction cups on them for next to nothing. In my lfs i think they are £4.99 so around $ 6,they usually for freshwater baby fry i think but ovbiously will do job of holding small shrimp for short time and still let water to pass through.