cleaner shrimp cleans the goby

[ak_47]

ok so i'm sitting chilling and watching my new blenny feed the odd time i must say on some hair algae, and along comes one of my cleaner shrimp, stops the goby in it's tracks and starts to clean him, he open his mouth and gills and lets the cleaner shrimp pick away at him, he likes it of course or at least i think so or he would surly just swim away, i take it the cleaner is getting rid of any unwanted bits of food and that stuck in his gills,


this dam place is getting madder by the day but it's great fun to watch such a colony thrive with each other, fantastic, just need my mates to understand the very strange world of marine tanks and how they function now.......

 

[Navarre]

Its these types of behaviour that makes marines such a truely fascinating hobby. Its a complete world in there and all for your viewing pleasure

 

[ak_47]

man it couldn't be more true, my tanks been going for ages, and at one point i nearly gave up on it, it's a stage of green hair algae and it doesn't look the best i must say, but i'm hopeing that the blenny will sort that out,

so my snails potter about and the shrimp clean and the goby sifts the sand and it's one big cycle in there, fasinating stuff like you say, the live rock that i bought now has some green pollyps on it and it looks great, just as long as i can get rid of most of this green algae, turned light cycle down and all test are fine, so it's prob just a case of letting them get on with it.... kewl

 

[Navarre]

Snails prefer to eat hair algae when its short. if it grows long then they will leave it. If you gentle scrub the rocks gently so its shortened the snails will help keep it down

 

[ak_47]

ok will do thanks for your advice, there's another thread that i fancy keeping an eye on called the hair algae is getting out of control so i'll keep an eye on that as well, i do how ever have a piece of dead coral and it's infested with hair algae so i may remove it and let it all die as you can hardly make it out to be a pice of coral.

 

[Navarre]

if there is any bit of the cora left alive then cut it away and put it n the tank. it may well recover and regrow

 

[Dragonscales]

just out of curiosity, do you use any sort of filter on your taps for changing water? If so, how often do you change the actual filter pad? Could be due to a build up of phosphate, a change of your filter and a good water change could help towards cutting back on the hair algae.

R.E: the cleaner shrimp, an interesting tidbit about these guys is that there are accounts by divers that their skills are in such high demand in the wild that fish actually line up to be cleaned. Pretty cool huh?

 

[Navarre]

Yep that is true!
Cleaner shrimps (and blood shrimps only they do this behavior in deeper water which is partly why they are reclusive in most tanks) will setiup a "cleaning station" on an outcrop of coral or rocks. They will sit here in full display of fish and predators yet they still rarely get attacked. Fish will then form an orderly cue (this even happens in my tank ) to each get cleaned in turn.

This doesnt happen as much in home reef tanks because food is fa easier to come by than in the wild. In the wild cleaner shrimp do this service as a main course of their daily diet. In a home tank the food is easier to come by so they tend to get lazy and this lovely display of nature in action becomes a rare sight However, saying that, it does happenoften enough to be a fascinating display to watch in the tank

 

[ak_47]

Dragonscales,

maybe your right a change of filter medium is prob going to be the key i hope, i have a fluval and haven't changed the filter medium in it since i set the tank up, prob about a year now, please don't go mad if i should have changed it well in advance, i have been cleaning it out with water from the tank but never changed the coral type things in it or the charcoal either. i have always thought that you need to introduce the new stuff gradualy into the filter?

i need to get a phosphate tester as thats what i'm missing, and maybe start doing some more water changes more frequently.



Navarre,

it is a great and fasinating sight.