Will a cleaner shrimp help me?

[yeldarbj]

I've got a basslet that has one small white spot (mostly likely ich) but I'm not convinced yet. It has only been noticeable for about a day and a half. How helpful would a cleaner shrimp be at this point, just in case I'm about to have an ich outbreak? Will a cleaner shrimp help control it?

[Steven Pro]

There is no proof they help with ich.

[grips]

I'm not really sure if it would help you or not. My best guess would be no. I say this because in my personal experience it would take time for the shrimp to acclimate to your tank.

What I mean is, once you put the shrimp in the tank, it would need time to adjust to it, explore, and establish it's cleaning station. This could take hours or it could take days/weeks. Keep in mind this is just my opinion.

However, I have had ICH in my tank and I DID notice an increase in cleaning activity during the outbreak. It seemed that the shrimp had much higher interest in cleaning the fish when they had ICH. I can't say how much impact the shrimp had on the fish's recovery, but they all survived. The shrimp was in my tank for 6 months before the outbreak. The shrimp in question is a skunk striped cleaner.

Hope that helps.

[ERICinFL]

As "grips" said, it may or may not help. Provided your fish will let the shrimp do it's job, will also have a bearing on how effective it will be. To my knowledge, the shrimp will pick off and eat parasites, dead scales, etc. It might not help the fish for that particular spot, but it could be good preventative maintainance from spreading and future outbreaks. It certainly wouldn't hurt to have one.

[lux_06]

my experiance with cleaner WRASSES is that as they may not eat the ich itself they do make the fish calmer and seem less effected by the parasites. i have had fish stop eating and begin again with the introduction of a cleaner wrasse however i have still lost fish to the ich so i only think of these handly cleaning critters as a preventative measure to keeping a happy and comfortable tank less stressed and less inclined to succomb to ich.

as a fix for ich, i dont like ur chances but it will help out with your fishes health and that is only a good thing.

[gfk]

some fish wont even let the shrimp clean it... my clowns hate my cleaner shrimp