Caught my shrimp redhanded

[skidoctor]

My lights just came on and I discovered my cleaner shrimp tearing apart a snail. The snail is obviously a goner, he pulled out of its shell ad the shrimp is tearing at it wih all of its might. A couple of fish are hanging around, looking for scraps. Should I try to pull the snail away from the shrimp and ge it out, or should I just chalk it up to natural predation and let the shrimp have a hearty meal? I knew he was a jerk, he grabs any morsel of food he can, but I've never seen him so aggressive. Could this be the reason why my conch has pretty much stopped cruising around my tank? I really don't know if I'm looking for suggestions or if this is just an interesting story, but thanks in advance for anyone that might have some insight.

 

[SquidwardTentacles]

The snail was probably on the way out. I'd let the scavengers clean it up unless you have a really small water volume.

 

[skidoctor]

That's what I figured. i'm sure the snail will be eaten in no time once my shrimp finally detaches it from the shell. I was more worried about an ammonia spike and everything that goes with that. Thank for the peace of mind.

 

[BuffaloReef]

What species is the shrimp?

 

[talon4x4]

That's what I figured. i'm sure the snail will be eaten in no time once my shrimp finally detaches it from the shell. I was more worried about an ammonia spike and everything that goes with that. Thank for the peace of mind.

What size tank?? Unless its really small I would think the ammonia spike would be negligible.

 

[skidoctor]

It's a coral banded in a 65g system. He's alway been greedy, but never bothered aything before.

 

[BuffaloReef]

It's a coral banded in a 65g system. He's alway been greedy, but never bothered aything before.

I've never kept a coral banded shrimp for this reason. It's possible the snail was dead and the shrimp was cleaning up but I've heard other reports of coral banded shrimp hunting. Personally, I wouldn't trust one but again, I've never kept one.

I will recommend feeding it directly though. A well fed animal is less likely to hunt tankmates, show aggression, etcetera.

 

[skidoctor]

Believe me- he is fed directly. He's the first one to find the baster when it goes in. He's never shown signs of aggression and I've had him or over 1.5 years. He has been a model resident. I can't even say I'm mad that he took out a snail (even if it was on the way out or dead already). I kinda needed to re-up my cuc, I'll just keep an eye on him for now. If he does get more aggressive, he knows that he'll end up in the naughty tank along with some jerk damsels.

 

[goettner]

I have never seen a cleanershrimp attack anythying but floating brineshrimp.
I cannot believe that a cleanershrimp attacks a healthy snail period....

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

welcome Grand Rapids!

welcome Grand Rapids!

Stenopus pyrsonotus ghost cleaner

Lysmata wurdemanii peppermint shrimp catching a Stomatella to eat

Lysmata amboinensis Indo-Pacific scarlet (or skunk) cleaner getting mobbed by fishes for cleaning

same shrimp cleaning a larger fish

Stenopus tenuirostris

anybody got a good pic of a coral banded Stenopus hispidus ?

I think Coral Bandeds are white handed... not red

 

[skidoctor]

There white gloves- they're very elegant. They enjoy escargot.

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

There white gloves- they're very elegant. They enjoy escargot.

:spin3:

 

[duckmeat]

I had a coral banded that was a hunter for sure. It got a watchman goby and my firefish goby. I also suspected of killing an emerald crab and fiddler crab. I had removed 2 clowns because I thought they were hurting my other fish. But it was that SOB shrimp. I ended up taking him
To a store that really screwed me( NOT abc reefs) and it ended up killing their coral beauty.

 

[SquidwardTentacles]

I have one in our 28g Nano. Model citizen. The build is really my ten-year old son's and he wanted one. While I objected a bit, we decided to give it a try. No issues. It lost an entire arm a couple months back during a molt. The very next molt, the arm had grown back to ~1/3 normal size. Two molts later and it was 100% back. Pretty amazing creature.

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

I had a mated pair of CBS's.
They hunted as a team. One would chase smaller faster cleaner shrimps into the other CBS's ambush. Very kewl to watch.

 

[skidoctor]

I've never seen mine "hunt". He is very protective of the food he catches though. But it does make me wonder where my royal gramma went. Swimming stupidly like they do (and he was especially dumb) one day, gone the next. I checked the sump, the overflow, the floor- nothing. One side of me thinks I should keep a better eye on him, the other thinks "good job little shrimp". I'm really not afraid of the natural food chain occuring in my tank. Just the aftermath and potentials for craching the entire system. Plus, everyone deserves a good, hearty, expensive meal every once in a while.

 

[SushiGirl]

I wouldn't count on the snail being on its way out. I had peps that caught & ate stomatellas & collumbelid snails in front of us and a large cleaner that ate all the stomatellas in the DT plus ripped a Florida cerith snail right out of its shell in front of my boyfriend. By the time I got there, it was munching away. And that was right after the shrimp being well fed. In a nod to karma, it died 2 days later...must've been a bad snail LOL.

Gary, beautiful female Stenopus tenuirostris. I had a male for a few years, the female didn't make acclimation.