Cleaner shrimp, worth it???

I like them but they can be a pita. I had them in all my fowlrs and they were great but I would never put one in my reef tank again. I like Mr.B's idea actually. Never had a coral banded shrimp before.

 

wow sounds like i got lucky with my cleaner shrimp, also for what its worth, I have a coral banded at work that will try to catch any fish that swims past. He has never caught one, but he tries. Never had a fire shrimp but the are beautiful

 

I currently have a Cleaner and CBS in my 125. Guests love the Cleaner as it is always out and about, where as the CBS stays hidden most of the day. However I also have to keep my sun coral covered while feeding, otherwise it won't have a chance to eat. Now that I have a 6' tank, I have found it much easier to spot feed LPS as it takes the Cleaner longer to get to them. Oh, and it hardly does any cleaning at all. My Hooded Wrasse will go right up to it and flash saying "clean me" and it will just ignore it. Meanwhile my Sharknose Goby will always oblige! My CBS also tries to grab at fish, usually just my Foxface. Not sure what it is really trying to do, but the FF just swims away.

I also have a Blood Red Fire Shrimp in my 28 and love it! It also stays hidden most of the day, but only rarely will steal food. They are not cleaners though.

 

I have a cleaner shrimp and two peppermint shrimp in my 55g. Both types are pretty cool but only the cleaner shrimp would clean my fish. As said before peppermint shrimp hide all day but are cool to watch when the lights go out. I've never had problem with any of them bothering my corals.