Cleaner Shrimp not eating

[teardrop]

Hi fellow reefers!

I've added a skunk cleaner shrimp to my tank and its been 3 days already yet it has shown absolutely no interest in the pellet and flake foods i throw in to the tank.. it is also always at the same piece of rock and i've never seen it step away from that piece of rock before. I keep it with a tomato clownfish in a cycled 2ft tank and as far as i can see, they do not pay any attention to each other at all.

So i'm wondering, anyone has the same experience before? is there anything i can do to make it start eating? Any suitable food i can try to feed it or is target feeding necesary? And finally, how long can these little critters last w/o food?

I've read that skunk shrimps are usually very outgoing creatures, and among the first to respond during feeding times and always looking to clean their tankmates.

Any comments are welcome!

[koniyakutz]

Mine usually stay under the stay piece of rock in the day and wonders about after lights off, I feed it daily with a small piece of market prawn.

Have you tried feeding it with meaty food such as mysis or market prawn?

[acidjazz]

It will definately take market prawn. Mine feeds on market prawn and mysis/brine shimps.

[teardrop]

I tried market prawn and even frozen bloodworms, but the shrimp will just fiddle with the food with its front legs for a while and throw it away after a few secs.

[FuEl]

Shrimps normally lose their appetite few days before they moult. Don't worry too much..often shrimps will eat when you are not looking.

[alien07]

Dont worry man, would eat in no time

[veliferium]

How many skunks shrimps do you have in your tank.

I currently only has one and it eats market prawns that i offer but it usually only stays on the underside of a rock.

So what i suspect is that they feel safer when there are partners around,but i have also heard that these shrimps will often kill newly added ones.

[Vincenttan]

i feed my cleaner and fire shrimp with sinking pellet and they enjoy it

[Alvin Tan]

my skunk shrimp loves formula 2 pellets..

[csloo]

brine shrimp, copepod,bloodworms and pellet will do for ur shrimp. as i know, the shrimp will find food at nite. if no food found, it will hide at the rock during the day, waiting for the food to come nearby. hope it's help!!

[angmoh]

i have 2 cleaner shrimps ... purpose is just to hope they can spawn and provide some zooplankton to my tank

[jem]

seems like most people who keep individual skunk cleaners experience that their skunk cleaners love to stay at the underside of the rock..mine too!..i may get another skunk cleaner of the same size tmr..and see if they would run around the tank!..lol

[angmoh]

both of them love to hanging below the LR, they will only move around during the feeding time .. hehe

but both of them dont live well together ler ... always fight de wor :\

[Kelmen]

they do run around foraging food.... but when light out.

I got 2. Sometime I stay late, after main lights out, they do wonder outside. touch touch this touch touch that. kind of nuisance too, disturb my star polyp.

I believe its nature, they got no "pincer", have to stay "low profile" during day time, that's normally fishy time.

Don't want get attack quah. Night time can play thief