cleaner shrimp on my clown

[acpoweradapter]

Well, my cleaner shrimp has never cleaned any of the fish in my tank but today everytime my clown swam by it, it would jump out to it and the fish would swim away quick.. Is it trying to clean the fish or eat it? I heard of a cleaner eating someones fish before.

[Roy G. Biv]

I would venture to say it is trying to clean it. They tend to clean the tangs more often though.

[jessicalynn1086]

i would agree with pmolan i would say it is trying to clean it as well

[viceversabrd]

I've never heard of a cleaner trying to eat a fish before maybe harassing clams or anemones but, never fish

[dahouck]

I've had a cleaner in w/ 2 clowns for about 2 months. It took a few weeks but the cleaner, after numerous attempts, finally got hold of the clowns. Now, the clowns only allow cleaning occasionally. However, when it does happen, the shrimp "jumps" onto the clowns, no harm done; just picking off dead skin or parasites. My shrimp is bigger than the clowns and has never hurt them.

[Packersfan21]

It's trying to clean the clown. If the clown is small, then he may feel intimidated by the cleaner shrimp and that's probably it's swimming away. My clowns do the same thing when my cleaner shrimp try to clean them.