I have two cleaner shrimp which have been very active until yesterday (sunday) I introduced two clown fish and a malu anemone on saturday but last night I noticed one of the shrimp was sitting in a corner not doing very much and it looks like it has brown algae on it and it doesn't seem to be cleaning itself, the other one is fine and still cleaning away, Any ideas?

was your tank fully cycled before fish additions? do tyou have current water readings? he could be about to molt... whats he like today?

also you really shouldnt have introduced an anemone to a new tank, not good beginner animals, they require absolutely perfect conditions, which means you need to have your tank running with fairly consistent stable test results for a godd 6months to a year. they can take months to die and hard to tell if they are healthy until its too late sometimes. clowns do not need anemones either..

Hi Gill just to let you know that my current readings are:
PH = 8.4 CA = 500 FE = 0 N02 = 0 P04 = 0.25 N03 = 10 TO 20 and NH3 = 0.1 i am currently doing a 10% water change each week aswell, the cleaner shrimp seems ok apart from being a bit brown.Thanks Noreen and Dan.

Noreen, as Gill says it could be about to shed its ekoskeleton. Keep your eye on it and dont be surprised to see his shell on the bottom of your tank one morning.

Thank you, i also have two peppermint shrimp as we had a little problem with aiptasia, We saw a transparent shrimp on the bottom of the tank and as we are new to marines we worried one may have died especially as one of the cleaner shrimp decided to pick out what it could! but thankfully the next day we saw both peppermint out and about! It was pretty cool to see!

Quote:

hi noreen
results are ok for a new tank
phosphate needs to be lower, 0.25 doesnt sound a lot i know, but its too much, also you need to kep an eye on the ammonia (nh3) that realy should be a definite 0. especially as you have the anemone in there... that will not tolerate conditions other than perfect. i honestly would say youd be better off taking it back until your tank has matured enough to provide stable enough conditions, and even then theres no guarantee youd be able to get it to live very long, unfortunatley in general anemones dont do that well in aquariums, they last for a long time in the sea, but most peaople get them to last about a year in aquariums.

Thanks Gill, I appreciate the feedback. The cleaner shrimp is back to a normal colour today and cleaning himself again!

glad to hear it!

Yep he was molting, found it earlier!