Crazy fire shrimp

[Russell G]

So I stopped by @Thomas Danho place yesterday to grab some corals/pods/phyto and decided to pick up a pair of cleaner shrimp and a fire shrimp that he had. I brought everyone home and acclimated them but when I went to set the fire shrimp loose in the tank, the strangest thing happened. My Naso tang went straight up to him and the shrimp jumped on for a ride.

At first he was just hanging on there but a little later I saw him actually cleaning him up. I added the two cleaners I picked up and the fish started lining up. They were not as interested in the fish as the fire shrimp was though. I endednup seeing my Diamond Goby, Yellow tang, and Foxface all lining up to get a cleaning. I even caught the fire shrimp on the Foxface giving him a cleaning a little later. I can’t help but to wonder if it picked this up from being around cleaner shrimp so much or if it was just a fluke.

I initially bought the fire shrimp just because he was nice looking but he’s turning out to be a pretty handy member of the tank!

I wanted to thank Tommy for all the help he’s been giving me and for the multi-talented shrimp.

 

[jackalexander]

My fire shrimp also picked up these habits after living with a cleaner shrimp and watching him clean my yellow tang. Now my cleaner has passed and the fire shrimp has stepped up to the plate. It’s honestly hilarious because he gets really aggressive with it.

 

[TCoach]

Fire shrimp are also cleaners.

I have 2 skunk cleaners and then a Sharknose Goby. I occasionally see my Sailfin Tang and/or Melanurus Wrasse line up for cleanings. It's pretty cool, because my Sailfin changes between a light to a dark color and that seems to signal he's open for cleaning.

 

[Russell G]

My fire shrimp also picked up these habits after living with a cleaner shrimp and watching him clean my yellow tang. Now my cleaner has passed and the fire shrimp has stepped up to the plate. It’s honestly hilarious because he gets really aggressive with it.

That’s funny… mine was holding on tight but not really doing a good job of cleaning. The Naso was holding his mouth open a lot trying to get the shrimp to clean him out and the shrimp was ignoring it. He just checked out the Naso’s gills a little bit and then his body. The Diamond had his mouth wide open for the fire too and got ignored but he was riding around like a champ.