Coral banded shrimp killer or not???

[tkh159]

I have read through multiple post about CBS killing there fish/inverts of any and all sizes :uhoh3: but who has physically seen this?

I have a 55g tank with cbs monester his body length is almost three inches and his antenna width is easily 10 inches. This cbs was taken out after being in the tank for 6 months after reading horror stories but he has never bothered our 1 inch clown, 2 inch coral beauty and yellow angel nor the 2 inch firefish??? We also have two emeralds and 6 hermit crabs blue leg, scarlet red leg and mexican red leg crabs.

Everyone gets along. Same with 30g the cbs in it is with 4 clowns that are only 1inch long with snails and 4 hermits and anemone with colored sand polyps and zoas.

Well anyway I have moved them both in a 10g with a turbo snail and a one inch bicolor dottyback. It has been 32 days and everything is alive all limbs and fins accounted for!

So I'm just lost :sad2:

 

[Ron Reefman]

I had one for many, many years. The only thing it killed was ANY other shrimp. I dropped a big grass shrimp caught locally into the tank and the CBS caught it within seconds and snapped it in half. I swear I could hear it say something about the 180g tank being her place and no other shrimp would be tolerated! LOL!

But I have friends with CBS that get along with other shrimp just fine.

It's just life on the reef.

 

[cloak]

I had a CBS along with two cleaners and a fire shrimp in a 60 gallon tank one time. Everybody seemed to get along fine, but they were all well fed though. I treated them like pets as opposed to janitors.. GL.

 

[tkh159]

@Ron did the cbs hunt grass shrimp down or did the grass shrimp get to close to the cbs?

@cloak that may be the reason mine left every one alone as they are fed every other day. The coral beauty shared the same cave as the cbs.

Off topic but i did have a pistol shrimp in the same tank as the cbs but i lost a firefish, a springeri dottyback and a yellow watchman gobby....now i didn't witness any shrimp killing the fish but each time the dead fish were in claws of the pistol shrimp in his cave.

See that's even a case of maybe the fish died and the pistol shrimp pulled it into it's cave???

 

[Silly clownfish]

I have had my CBS for almost 10 years. It has certainly waved its claws at fish who get in its space, but not harmed any fish. In fact when the cherub angel who caused the most claw waving died, I found the dead angel in the tank, untouched (cbs probably had not found it yet). They had probably been in there together for 5+ years.

Of course that is just my experience with a single CBS.

 

[tkh159]

I guess its just luck of the draw? I have a bicolor dottyback that i had to take out as it was tearing the fins of a clown, firefish and yellow watchman goby. Go figure?

I put back the cbs in the 55g and the 30g. Only event that happened was the cbs got too close to the clown and her anemone so she fought him off and thats shrimps tail was tucked as he ran for his life!

Still though I'll keep a watchful eye on them ��

 

[Ron Reefman]

@Ron did the cbs hunt grass shrimp down or did the grass shrimp get to close to the cbs?

In the case of the grass shrimp, it was just dropped in the tank and the CBS came out from inside the rock structure onto a monti plate so it could reach out and grab the grass shrimp as it swam by. So either scenario is possible.

We also collect pistol shrimp from sponges washed up on the beach. I had one that did survive about 2 weeks before it disappeared. I blamed the CBS. Now the CBS is gone, finally, and new pistol shrimp and peppermint shrimp have been in the tank for over a year with no issues. I'm convinced it was all due to the CBS.

But like I said before, I know people who have CBS in their tanks and have no problems adding other shrimp.

BTW, I'd guess your pistol shrimp with dead fish was probably just doing clean up work. It didn't kill the fish.

 

[tkh159]

That would be impressive do to the fact the pistol shrimp was so small.

 

[ThRoewer]

I have pairs of the smaller species - S. tenuirostris (Blue Coral Banded Shrimp) and S. cyanoscelis (Yellow Coral Banded Shrimp) - and they are model citizens. Not even the sexy shrimp get bothered.
Only issue with these guys is that they are quite reclusive during the day.