Cleaner shrimp eating bta

[Pslreefer]

So I’ve had this bta for about 2 months and couldn’t figure out why it’s been looking like it’s dying lately. Deflated, mouth white, white shredded like tissue.

Well, today found my cleaner shrimp snacking on it!!!! Is this normal shrimp behavior?

[LauraGreenImp]

Whoa! I’ve never seen my cleaner shrimp (4) munch on *anything* other than garbage & the fishies food. I find this concerning, since I just put a gorgeous rbta in DT (it’s still crawling around, hasn’t found it’s ‘spot’). Please chime in, experienced reefers, ‘cause I’ll jerk my CS out so fast...


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[Bent]

It’s orobably just eating the dead flesh. I’d say something else killed it.

[rvareef]

tank looks pretty new so could be a dying bta that the shrimp is eating

[Pslreefer]

It’s 7 months old so not exactly new, but not old either. Was hard to tell I had to shoo it away and it released whatever it was eating. My thing is I notice it once the lights come on, the shredded tissue at the base.
It will recover some then a few days later see the shredded tissue again. I don’t think the regal angel or idol is nipping it, could be wrong though and just haven’t caught them in the act yet.

[Anemone]

Cleaner shrimp won't "attack" a healthy BTA, but they will rip meaty food out of its tentacles and mouth.

Kevin

[ramseynb]

Originally Posted by Anemone

Cleaner shrimp won't "attack" a healthy BTA, but they will rip meaty food out of its tentacles and mouth.

Kevin

That was my first thought. As much as I love them, cleaner shrimp will harass news and LPS if they have food in their mount/stomach. It's strange that this one appears to be eating the side of the nem though. The cleaners I've had in the past went right for the mouth and tried to pull food out from there.

[NYCBOB]

perhaps u have a rogue shrimp. take it out if u r concerned. nothing is 100% reef safe.

[homer1475]

Originally Posted by Anemone

Cleaner shrimp won't "attack" a healthy BTA, but they will rip meaty food out of its tentacles and mouth.

Kevin

This was my thinking also. That BTA doesn't look too healthy to me either.

[Indymann99]

Should be easy to catch the Cleaner Shrimp, put it in the sump for a couple of weeks and see if the nem recovers.

my 0.02

[Pslreefer]

Ya it doesn’t look healthy cos something is eating it lol

It was really nice.

[Pslreefer]

I would say the issue of stripping my tank if po4 caused orbit it was doing this before that as well. I’m thinking the shrimp is snacking on it at night or early morning when the sun comes up.

[mav3rick478]

You should actually be thankful he is eating him instead of just letting him rot away and possibly nuking your tank.

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[Navig8tr]

I had a cleaner shrimp that would harass my BTAs because it quickly figured out they were a good place to poach food from.

[Antegon]

Mine does the same, scavenger that he is. When I feed the tank mysis and plan to feed the btas (maybe once a week st the moment) I always go to the other side of the tank. The cleaner shrimp follows the Baster, I squeeze enough to keep him occupied for a minute, then go drift feed the btas. But also mine has never seemed to do real damage. Hard to tell if this is the cause or the effect, as others pointed out. +1 to sump QT and watch bta V carefully. If it’s going either way, get it and it’s rock into a QT if you think there’s hope. But no matter what, out of the tank. Good luck!


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[Uncle99]

In my experience, like many have said, shrimps do not attack healthy, mature anemones.
I kept them for more than 25 years and while they may step on them, while scavenging, never an attack...

[FoxFace Fish]

IME you would be surprised I honestly think that anything under a year is a young tank but that’s just me

[davocean]

Originally Posted by Anemone

Cleaner shrimp won't "attack" a healthy BTA, but they will rip meaty food out of its tentacles and mouth.

Kevin

This, or if it is expelling waste, which would be my guess, it does not look very healthy.

[slief]

Originally Posted by FoxFace Fish

IME you would be surprised I honestly think that anything under a year is a young tank but that’s just me

I agree 100%. 7 months old isn’t nearly mature and that system is still going through biological changes that aren’t measurable with conventional testing. I don’t normally recommend BTA’s for tanks under 1 year old as that is about the time it takes for a tank to really stabilize and become what I would consider to be mature. BTA’s don’t like systems that are not completely biologically stable and don’t take to changes in water quality or water chemistry well either. I honestly think based on my experience with BTA’s that this is the real reason for this BTA’s issues and not the shrimp.

Originally Posted by davocean

This, or if it is expelling waste, which would be my guess, it does not look very healthy.

Agreed. I’ve kept BTA’s for over 15 years along with cleaner shrimp and never had a cleaner shimp bother my BTA’s let alone eat a BTA. That is not something cleaner shimp will do. They may steal food from them or pick off decay but that’s it. I suspect the real issue here is the BTA’s health and the cleaner shrimp is just scavenging decay or waste that the BTA is expelling.

[Pslreefer]

Well tank age could be a factor and I consider myself pretty knowledgeable being in the hobby for 11 years. I could have posed the envelope a bit too far with the nem however. I did have that in my head at the lfs.

[Bent]

Originally Posted by Pslreefer

Well tank age could be a factor and I consider myself pretty knowledgeable being in the hobby for 11 years. I could have posed the envelope a bit too far with the nem however. I did have that in my head at the lfs.

Might not have been your fault. Could have just been unhealthy from the jump.

[Fraq]

I would think it's eating the dead flesh. The BTA would feast on that shrimp if it was hungry and healthy.