[teriyakithunder]

is this true that cleaners can eat ich off of infected fish? i thought they only pick off dead skin and such. any help would be greatly appreciated

[pogodzib]

Some people claim that they eat ich. I am not one of them.

[JackedupSOB]

I have heard of that but have never seen it happen myself

[ljv]

I had a yellow tang with some small black spots on it. Its another type of parasite that is common on tangs and not as deadly as ich. The fish was never sick looking but it always had a few on it. Instead of trying to catch the tang to treat it (not easy in a 125G tank) I picked up a cleaner shrimp.

The tang would swim over to it and let the shrimp crawl all over its face. It was amazing to watch. The black spots disappeared. Might have been coincidence but I don't think so.

I think the shrimp can help control parasites but will probably do little for a major outbreak on a sick fish.

[e_baer]

I agree with Larry. May help control very minor amounts of ich, but any fish with an infection, I dont think a cleaner shrimp can do too much for the fish.