Coral Banded Shrimp

aussiereefer82 · 02-14-2005, 11:55 PM

G'day guys,
I have always liked the coral banded shrimp but have heard they can be a bit mean sometimes. The only things in my tank that they could likely attack would be my Firefish.
What are your thoughts on these guys, are they safe? I dont want one if it is going to harrass my fish continuously.

Also what do they eat, will they just scavenge or do they require direct feeding?

drw94 · 02-15-2005, 12:40 AM

I have had one for about a year and he is great. he is a little aggressive but the other tank inhabitants learn to stay away. Mine comes out and eats when I feed the fish. I also have a cleaner shrimp, 3 peppermints and an arrow crab and they all get along great, no problems at all. The coral banded will scavange most of the time and they do not require direct feeding. Just want to make sure the tank is big enough for him.

Goodluck!!

Beal09 · 02-15-2005, 12:42 AM

I've now had 2 in my tank (1 passed durning a big tank move :-( ) and absolutely love them! I haven't had any bad experiences with them and actually find them to be quite docile. Mine only comes out at night but is awesome to watch. Never had problems with him picking on any of my other shrimp (2 cleaners, 1 peppermint, and 1 fire shrimp) or creatures/ corals. They seem to just scavenge and while I never spot fed they do enjoy any left over mysis, krill, silversides or any other loose meaty item they can get their hands on. Don't get me wrong they will protect themselves...i had a yellow tang that I guess thought he was a cleaner shrimp...after a few times of a close little snip he figured it out ;-)...but no harm was ever done to any of my fish, and i never saw him "attack" anything in my tank...even the much smaller juvenile shrimp/ fish. Very cool critter!

jagt48 · 02-15-2005, 03:24 AM

I have had one in my tank for quite a while. No problems here! Never had any other types of shrimp in there, but I want to get peppermints and from everything that I have seen it will be OK because neither is that aggressive. My CBS has his own little spot on the underside of some rock and he just sits there all day.

rockster2599 · 02-15-2005, 06:13 AM

Mine is the boss of my tank, lashes out at anything swimming past. It is too slow to catch anything but Im not sure what would happen if it did.

Rockster

jdbassin · 02-15-2005, 09:01 AM

Mine once pinched me while cleaning the tank and would chase everything that passed by but in a year has never caused any harm what so ever and hasn't even bothered chasing fish anymore lately the past few months. He does an awesome job of keeping my bristle worms under control. I see him eating one every few days. Once I even saw him eat one that was as big as he was, Great critter fun to watch

jd

Tomaquar · 02-15-2005, 11:43 AM

I find them to be unpredictable. Ive had several at different times some have been great while others were psychotic killers. (And yes I have seen one grab, kill and eat a damsel). In general I find that if I feed them regularly, the dont become become some kind of were-crustacean

rockster2599 · 02-17-2005, 07:29 AM

Got home last night and mine was eating one of my big zebra leg hermits

. Not sure if it killed it but was certainly making a decent meal out of it.
Rockster.

VWD · 02-17-2005, 08:18 AM

I have never had one kill a fish or crab , They always look as if they are king of the rock , i never keep more then one per tank , i know You can in large tanks and pairs , Vince

reefBoyDc · 02-17-2005, 05:42 PM

I have a big one and i've had no problems. It lunges at any fish that comes close, but it never gets close to catching it. I can always tells where it is because of his huge wiskers. He eats leftovers, but loves an occasional peace of shrimp (canibbal!). I have heard you should only get 1 per 30 gallons. They look awesome and are always a croud pleaser. Go for it!