Skunk Cleaner Shrimp Help?

[rkpetersen]

I've kept a lot of scarlet skunks, as well as fire shrimp. I've never purposely fed any of them. If you feed your fish reasonably generously, the shrimps will have plenty to scavenge.

As far as adding iodine for molting, there are divided opinions. Whether it actually facilitates molting in some way, or irritates the shrimp causing premature molting, is unclear. I used to be of the opinion that a bit of iodine is a good supplement, but have changed my mind about it, based on some observations, and now don't dose iodine at all.

 

[CrashTestBennie]

Tell us about your tank...what kind of reef tank, fish, inverts?

They are actually very easy to care for with few demands. I don't feed mine directly...they are pros at stealing food from other inhabitants. They do need good water quality and some iodine for proper molting.

Hey, so I don't have fish yet in my 25g lagoon. I do have a cuc and a Scarlett skunk cleaner shrimp, which I feed shrimp and invertebrate pellets every other day and twice a week when feeding reef roids, I make sure to give him a fair amount or he'll rob my corals. I won't have fish for another week or so. My LFS said ORA is running behind on the black Saddleback clownfish I want due to helene and Milton. Should I just keep doing what I'm doing, or do I need to step up feeding? Thanks in advance for any advice...

 

[Reef.]

Hey, so I don't have fish yet in my 25g lagoon. I do have a cuc and a Scarlett skunk cleaner shrimp, which I feed shrimp and invertebrate pellets every other day and twice a week when feeding reef roids, I make sure to give him a fair amount or he'll rob my corals. I won't have fish for another week or so. My LFS said ORA is running behind on the black Saddleback clownfish I want due to helene and Milton. Should I just keep doing what I'm doing, or do I need to step up feeding? Thanks in advance for any advice...

Yes but keep in mind your po4 lvl, most corals don’t need feeding and Reef Roids have an absolute ton of po4, add in your pellets and fish food when you start with fish, you may have an nutrient issue.

I would personally stop the Reef Roids until year 2, see how your tank handles nutrients.

 

[CrashTestBennie]

Yes but keep in mind your po4 lvl, most corals don’t need feeding and Reef Roids have an absolute ton of po4, add in your pellets and fish food when you start with fish, you may have an nutrient issue.

I would personally stop the Reef Roids until year 2, see how your tank handles nutrients.

Yeah, I already learned that the hard way. When I first got started, I fed reef roids every day, small amounts, which didn't even matter. I had no3 and po4 all over the place. Doing emergency water changes every day. Luckily my LFS dialed me in on information and advice. I only feed 2 ml of reef roids twice a week. Believe it or not, I actually need the little bit of nutrients from that, since my refugium sucks it all out of the water... thank you for looking out though. That means a lot to me!