Bad Coral Banded Shrimp... Help!

[str8juizy]

OK, so I have had all my fish, crabs & shrimp for over 2 years. Made the switch from a 55 gallon to my 92 gallon corner & never added any new fish. All my fish have been healthy & happy & none have ever died. Then 4 months ago I added a pistol shrimp & goby, a couple more cleaner shrimp & a big ugly coral banded shrimp. Since then things have been disapearing. First it was one of my cleaner shrimp, then one of my green chromis, then another cleaner shrimp, then the other 2 of my green chromis, then my crabs & alot of my snails. I have always tested my water & it has been fine. I have never seen any dead bodies. I always wondered where they could have gone. Then today I added a lawnmower blenny to the crew. As soon as he found himself a place to hide out in my rocks, here comes the coral banded shrimp & grabs him with both claws & tries to eat him. I got a net in there just in time to scare him away! I am now afraid that at night when my fish & inverts have been resting the coral banded shrimp has been catching & eating them. After what I witnessed today it is the only thing I can think of. Has anyone had this problem before? Are coral banded shrimp known for this? I was so pissed I wanted to boil him! Anyone know if this is normal???

 

[nata]

Wow..my banded is peaceful..but you never know and everything in this hobby is unpredictable...and if he is hungry he takes matter in his own claws...sorry to
hear of your loss..hang in there and get him out...

 

[Inconservatory]

I had a coral banded try and catch my juvenile ocellaris. At that point, I knew it was time for him to go. Before that, he would pick out thiny serpent stars from the rock and munch on them. I would also attribute the disappearance of a peppermint shrimp or two to this guy. How big is your CBS? I would assume that they get more aggressive as they grow larger.

 

[Faciosity]

I had my coral banded shrimp for over a year before he started killing fish. He now lives in my nano with just one small damsel that is too fast for him to catch. He will literally attack you if you stick your hand in the tank. He found a cave where he could ambush fish as they appeared. The first victim was a blue/green chromis that was healthy and happy one day, and the next morning it was a spine and skull sitting in front of the shrimp cave. Second one was during last superbowl, when I went to the kitchen for a beer I walked by the tank just in time to see him grab the lip of my scopas tang (who was way bigger than the shrimp) and held on for dear life as the tang swam away. I got the shrimp off the tang, but the damage was done, and with an ingured mouth, he stressed out and died 2 days later.

 

[str8juizy]

My CBS is pretty big, I would guess at least 3 inches from claw to claw (wingspan) & at least 2 inches from head to tail. I know he eats well. He comes running as soon as I put food in the tank. He is pretty fast. I have been watching him today & I have seen him sit under my big RBTA & try to attack my clowns who host it. I have not seen the lawnmower blenny since the attack & I am hoping it is still ok but if he likes to sit in the rocks he will be dinner if I do not get the CBS out of my tank. I think tomorrow he will have to go to the fish store.

 

[khaosinc]

If all else fails, I have a snowflake eel that would love to meet him... LOL

 

[capdippe]

Sorry str8juizy, thats crap!

 

[sullest]

this kind of make me want to throw my coral band out =p

 

[ac7av]

Coral banded shrimp can be aggressive. I always thought people that were blaming the shrimp on eating fish were crazy. Well guess what I have one now too that I would love for some one else to adopt. Almost like clockwork I go threw a small fish every 3 weeks that seemed perfectly healthy at night and MIA by morning. It always happens at night and I can only assume he is ambushing them at night. I see the way that shrimp acts when fish get close to it in the day time and its very clear he has fish or the brain for dinner. I lost my clown goby, shrimp goby, several chromis, a couple other damsels. And its always the smallest of fish that seem to exit the tank. Probably because the larger fish can always get away.

 

[returnofsid]

Coral Banded Shrimp are notorious for eventually attempting to catch fish. In on of my tanks that's full of livestock I'm pet sitting for, a large CBS stretches out it's claws, attempting to catch a couple adult clowns. In doing so, it gets too close to their anemone and they rip into it....lol. I'm really surprised the female clown hasn't tore off a claw yet.

 

[TJL]

Yes, Banded Coral Shrimp can be very efficient predators as my last one proved to be. I lost at least 30+ hermits, 20+ lg Astrea snails, 8 Peppermint Shrimp, 6 Emerald crabs a Yellow Prawn Goby and who knows what else before I captured him. He was basically well behaved for the first 2 yrs then did all this damage in a couple months time.

Todd

 

[Herefishyfishy]

Yes, Banded Coral Shrimp can be very efficient predators as my last one proved to be. I lost at least 30+ hermits, 20+ lg Astrea snails, 8 Peppermint Shrimp, 6 Emerald crabs a Yellow Prawn Goby and who knows what else before I captured him. He was basically well behaved for the first 2 yrs then did all this damage in a couple months time.

Todd

Always blaming your poor reefkeeping skills on that poor innocent shrimpy.
If you did a water change more frequent than every new years and bought a skimmer. And no, cheeseburgers are NOT a complete food for marine wildlife.

 

[TJL]

Hey Mike how did you sneak a picture of my real fishtank, hmmm... I bet they would enjoy a little shrimp snack.

Todd

 

[SaltwaterNoobs]

We had the same problem in our tank with a CBS and a goby. We had gotten our tank from CL and it already had a CBS, goby, maroon clown, and bengai cardinal. The night we brought the tank home and set it up, the CBS and goby must have gotten into some sort of epic battle. The next morning, both were found dead - the goby partly eaten and the shrimp just kinda frozen in a "stance", but also dead. After we researched online and asked some people at our LFS, we learned CBS are very aggressive, especially towards bottom dwellers like gobies and blennies. The guy we had was quite huge, too.

So needless to say I would stay away from CBS and find that guy a new home! They are bad news.

 

[WABlonde]

Turned on my aquarium light this afternoon to find a bunch of arrow crab legs in the corner. The only thing I have in my tank that I think would be capable of taking out that nasty thing is our banded coral shrimp. I cleaned out the tank last weekend and took out about 15+ snail and hermit shells. A few days later, there's about another 5.....

It was just a few days ago that I saw him jump onto our tang and took a little ride... The BF LOVES this shrimp but is it possible that he's too aggressive for our tank? It was just yesterday that they had quite the feast with mysis shrimp so a bit surprised to find the arrow crab in pieces.

 

[IPisces]

Well I know what I am not putting in any of my tanks. They sound like trouble makers.

 

[khaosinc]

I have one as well... been relegated to the fuge as its always been a pian in the hind quarters and was warned as such when I was given him a couple years ago. Lived quite well in my sump and out lived the Eel put in there to eat him as well...

hasn't killed the chromis or the starfish yet, but I am missing an angel... I keep the tank way over fed as well...

He also likes to pull zoas/palys up and move them..

 

[WABlonde]

Arg. Would like to find this guy a new home. He took out our powder brown tang last night. :'( We have a fluval filter, no sump so no place to banish him to.

 

[spllbnd2]

I'd heard about those pesty CBS being kind of predatory to other tank mates. I guess that is why I've stayed away from them for so many years. Good luck with them CBS.

 

[BCT182]

I've got two. One is a regular and the other is a gold. They are constantly fighting. They like to pinch each others claws and whiskers off. Originally all the whiskers on my cleaner shrimp were stumped, but have grown back and the cleaner stays the heck away now.

I have the two banded shrimp, 3 peppermint and 1 cleaner total. They have all been together for quite sometime. We'll see what the future brings.

Is there a chance these fish are already dead or close to it? I couldn't imagine these guys being strong enough to overpower a healthy small clown or chromis.