How much cleaning is normal...shrimp and Goby

citymouse · Sep 16, 2018

Is it normal for the Fire shrimp to clean the goby several times a day? Should I be concerned? The Goby spends most of his time asking for a bath....he's practically following the shrimp everywhere, opening his mouth really wide, I assume he does this because it opens his gills?

Why does he want so much attention from the Shrimp?

I know this what shrimp do, I'm just wondering if too much cleaning means something bad...and what's the norm for these things?

DSC reef · Sep 16, 2018

I don't think it's anything to worry about. We had a cleaner shrimp and yellow watchman develop a relationship where the shrimp cleaned him constantly and were always together even when not cleaning, symbiotic.

citymouse · Sep 16, 2018

I the Goby and Shrimp bond, do I have to keep them together? They're both in the quarantine tank and my plan was that the shrimp goes into my biocube and the Goby into my big tank. I didn't think these 2 would bond.

eatbreakfast · Sep 17, 2018

citymouse said:
I the Goby and Shrimp bond, do I have to keep them together? They're both in the quarantine tank and my plan was that the shrimp goes into my biocube and the Goby into my big tank. I didn't think these 2 would bond.

Cleaner shrimp don't bond with fish. They can go to seperate tanks. But really they should be qt'd seperately.

citymouse · Sep 17, 2018

eatbreakfast said:
Cleaner shrimp don't bond with fish. They can go to seperate tanks. But really they should be qt'd seperately.

Why should they be qt'd separately? I almost didn't bother quarantining the shrimp, but to be extra cautious, I did. They all came from the same LFS at the same time.

eatbreakfast · Sep 17, 2018

While inverts don't contract the same parasites that attack fish, they can still be carriers of parasites if they are not kept seperate for the parasite's full life cycle, which is upwards of 80 days.

If you do encounter parasites, the fish cannot be adequately treated with the shrimp.

citymouse · Sep 17, 2018

So far so good, the Goby seems fine. I've never had a fish with parasites before (knock on wood/fingers crossed and all that) Would it be obvious? It's been a couple weeks, he seems fine so far, just being a Goby

I never quarantined before, the QT is newly set up. I've always just acclimated and tossed them in the tank....I've been lucky! But reading about velvet being more common these days etc. scared me int setting up a QT. I've always gotten fish from this same store too, both saltwater and freshwater fish.