[digby]

Here's my question. Can a Clown fish kill a cleaner shrimp and feed it to an anemone? Somehow, my anemone is eating my cleaner shrimps!! Lost one I had for almost a year. I could not figure out how the anemone got the shrimp in the first place. I replaced the cleaner shrimp with a new one and within an hour the anemone had him too! That's why I'm wondering if the clown fish has anything to do with it???

Any ideas

[zhenya]

Originally Posted by digby

Here's my question. Can a Clown fish kill a cleaner shrimp and feed it to an aneome? Somehow, my aneome is eating my cleaner shrimps!! Lost one I had for almost a year. I could not figure out how the aneome got the shrimp in the first place. I replaced the cleaner shrimp with a new one and within an hour the aneome had him too! That's why I'm wondering if the clown fish has anything to do with it???

Any ideas

It is possible that clownfish can kill a shrimp but I doubt it would kill it to feed to anemone. It may kill it in a protective instinct but it can also be that the shrimp wandered too close to the anemone and was killed by it. What species of anemone do you have?

[digby]

Originally Posted by zhenya

It is possible that clownfish can kill a shrimp but I doubt it would kill it to feed to anemone. It may kill it in a protective instinct but it can also be that the shrimp wandered too close to the anemone and was killed by it. What species of anemone do you have?

Hi zhenya,

It's a rose anemone. I doubt the shirmp wandered too close to the anemone as I had just introduced the shrimp to the tank and it was staying far to the lower corner well away from the anemone. And it seems strange that two different shrimp within just a few days would both get caught by the anemone which lives on the glass near the top corner of the tank away from where the shrimp roam.

[WHOSYOURDADDY]

Clown Fish typically are social fish on the other hand with the type of relationship they have with their host anemone is that it can lure the shrimp/fish close enough for the anemone to get a hold of it.