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Do cleaner shrimp sting?


KarenM

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I stupidly trained my cleaner shrimp to take food from my fingers. It's fun, but now every time I put my hand in the tank he comes running. About 15 minutes ago I was doing some minor rearranging and something stung my arm. I have an anemone, but I wasn't near it. The only thing near my arm was the cleaner shrimp. it still stings like crazy (I've been running cold water on it). There's a quarter sized red spot with a bunch of tiny bumps on it.

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No I dont think shrimp sting. This is just a total guess, but could it have been a hydroid?

I don't know what that is. ;) I'm new to SW. But I did buy a clam and some corals a ocuple of days ago, so I suppose there could have been a hijacker, but it would have to be small and hard to see as I haven't seen anything unusual.

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Cleaner shrimp don't sting. Some times my arms get irritated after being in the tank. I have also read, article, that small flukes can come in on snails. They stay in the water column and borrow into your skin. It sounds very scary.

Ok, can you make that sound any scarier?? :|

You are gonna make it so poor Karen never puts her arms in the tank again ;)

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Ok, can you make that sound any scarier?? :|

You are gonna make it so poor Karen never puts her arms in the tank again :|

No kidding! I know I won't be sticking that arm in there for awhile. :D I'm trying to make my clam happy, and I was following the other thread. He moved his up higher, so I did, too. Then this morning I read where he put it where it wouldn't get quite so much light, so that's what I was doing. But that darned cleaner shrimp was trying to get me the whole time. ;)

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Yeah it really bothers me too. I have just played ostrich in the sand after reading that article. At one point I considered getting gloves, but bought something else for the tank instead. I personally think the irritation comes from your skin drying out after being in salt water. We had a cleaner shrimp once that loved to clean us. Sometimes he would get over zealous and it would hurt, but it was never a lasting feeling.

300th post YEE HAY!

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Yeah it really bothers me too. I have just played ostrich in the sand after reading that article. At one point I considered getting gloves, but bought something else for the tank instead. I personally think the irritation comes from your skin drying out after being in salt water. We had a cleaner shrimp once that loved to clean us. Sometimes he would get over zealous and it would hurt, but it was never a lasting feeling.

300th post YEE HAY!

I luv the little guy, but I'd prefer that he stick to cleaning the fish. ;)) 300 posts! Wow, what a milestone! Ever wonder what you talked about for all those posts?

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I would vote for a bristle worm you just didn't see.As for the clam. I would leave it alone and see how it does. The more you move it around the harder it is for it to get adjusted to your tank. Clams are pretty easy to tell if they are not happy. They will either not open up or start gaping wide open.

300, psssh. ;)

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