Coral-banded shrimp might have to go...

[Tuscaquatics]

I've had this CBS in my 55 for more than 6 months. He hides all day in his little spot behind the rockwork against the back glass. Then almost as soon as I turn off the lights and throw on the moon lights he comes out.

I'm not sure how exactly we measure these things, but his body is about 3-4 inches head to tail and the span of his antennae is probably 10-12 inches. So I guess he's pretty big now.

I'm pretty damn sure he eats all my bristle worms and big pods, which is OK, but I'm not sure what else he's doing.

I've tried putting in two different gobies (a diamond and a gold-headed) that both mysteriously died within 3-4 days. All my other fish are fine. I have a big Cinnamon clown, a lawnmower blenny, and a fairly small lunare wrasse.

Which leads me to my next point. I know the wrasse is gonna have to go. I admittedly bought him without doing my own research and listened to a moron at the local LFS just cause I was determined to get something that day.

But so far the wrasse doesn't bother anyone. And, most importantly, he doesn't touch any of my snails or the shrimp, either. Yet. But he will be moved to a different tank hopefully soon.

About 10 days ago I got a black long-spined sea urchin. He made it about a week before someone turned him into a meal.

I'm thinking the CBS had to be the one on the urchin. The wrasse couldn't have gotten through the spines, could he?

As for the gobies, I never saw the wrasse bother them while they were out sifting sand and doing great. I'm wondering if maybe they never found a great hiding spot in the rocks and the veteran CBS, who knew his way around already, crept up on them while they slept.

But can a CBS slay a fairly large goby? What do you guys/gals think?

This shrimp will probably have to go soon, especially if he's murdering full-grown fish. It's already bad enough I can't keep any cleaner shrimp or peppermint shrimp for aiptasia. Is it possible this guy eats shrimp, fish and other inverts?

 

[claire481]

My CBS turned out to be a secret little assassin as well. The fish managed to stay out of his way (damsels) with nothing more than chunks missing from their fins. I just coulndn't figure out why my turbo snails mysteriously lost the will to live, retreated into thier shells and died within a week of introduction. Then I watched my 2'' long CBS when the lights went off and saw him nipping off their antennae and eye-stalks when they came out to feed. (The damsels had their nasty part in this as well) Needless to say I got rid of the territorial pests and acquired a more peacefull community.

 

[rale2001]

I have a cbs with a clown pair and three striped damsels and a blue devil I have 3 snails and 5 hermits and my shrimp lives in harmony with everybody. I've only had them 3 months now and I'm planning on trading the damsels for a firefish and a dwarf angel of some sort. I just havnt had any problems out of my cbs at all and he has moulted 2x in the 3 months and I havnt done any suppliments. That's jme

 

[trashman]

I have a CBS and he seems to get along with everything just fine

 

[ralphie]

Have you tried dropping in some food at night, such as sinking shrimp pellets?

 

[Tuscaquatics]

Have you tried dropping in some food at night, such as sinking shrimp pellets?

Oh yeah, I've been giving him the shrimp pellets at night. I give him the same ones I give my pleco in my freshwater.

I think the problem might be that somewhere along the line he's gotten a taste of fresh meat probably from a fish that was otherwise sick or dead. I read that once they taste it, they seek it out.

I had a bout of ich months ago that wiped out my fish and I suppose he finished off one of them and has never looked back.

I'm actually cycling a new 75-gallon right now and I'm building a sump with a fuge for it. Think he would be a candidate for being put in the fuge? Or is he too big? I guess it might depend on how big the fuge is.