Cleaner shrimp maybe sick?

[Coryg]

Hey again, i have another problem. Seems that i bought a cleaner shrimp and its been day 3 in my tank and ive noticed that on one of his sides, there is a bubble protruding out, does anyone know what this is?

[lReef lKeeper]

could be molting ... how was it acclimated, how long has the tank been up and running, and what are your parameters ??

[Coryg]

h1 cup of water at sg 1.023 every 10 minutes for 30 mins then strained and dumped. i put iodine 1 drop in my 30g which is half of what i should put once a week, my water in tank is 1.023, i water change 10 to 15% every other week, i calcium dose every day, and my tank is almost 2 months up and running with water and my refugium going, ill try to get a puck soon, its just like he got punched in the side and its all swollen up.

[Coryg]

heres the pics, hes doing fine though, crawls on my hand and cleans me, even eats mysis from my hands to. doesnt seem to be affecting him mentally.

u can see on the right side better in the right pic that hes got a bubble lookin thing

[CarmieJo]

There are some isopods that will burrow under the shell of a shrimp.

[wildeone]

I had a parasitic isopod on my cleaner and did some research on them. Check out my tank Journal Post 425 (link below). See if those photos are what it looks like. Make sure you read what is in there, I had input from some heavy hitters in the marine world. The bottom line is that if it is a parasitic Isopod, it shouldn't hurt anything else in the tank.

Actually I was told it shouldn't kill the host either, because it relies on the host to keep itself alive. The host is not in any pain from it however more than likely it will not reproduce due to the energy drain. Also the key is that the isopod is specialized to the cleaner shrimp and will not attach to anything else but another cleaner shrimp.