Coral Banded Shrimp

[WaterPond]

One of my frist additions to my first slatwater tank was a coral banded shrimp. It has been doing great and is growing and molting alot.

I have a question though. Although i did research alot before buying one, i didn't read that they would eat worms, snails, and hermit crabs. My tank includes a large feather duster, 6 hermit crabs, and 3 snails. He hasnt even showed interest in them. He just goes along eating uneaten food.

So, so i have anything to worry about, or is this information even true? Is that just in the wild? Will they do the same in an aquarium setting?

Thanks.

[tecwzrd]

My CBS hasn't killed anything and I've had it about 1 1/2 years now and it's huge. Only warning I have ever read about CBS was on www.melevsreef.com but still didn't mention the ones you did.

They do get fairly large when full grown and if not properly fed I can imagine it might go after anything to survive but a well fed CBS shouldn't be an issue IMO.

[produceb]

I have a pair in my tank for 5 months now. They have never messed with anything once in my tank. The male did kill a small goby when I had them in my holding tank after capture. He was amazing quick how he snapped it. He ate the whole thing, the female had eggs at the time which may of been part of the reason for the aggresion. Everything in my tank is scared to death of them, but they do not seem to bother anything.

[melosu58]

Things dont always happen right away. I know I had some angels in my tank awhile back even though I knew they could be trouble to my corals. For 4 yrs I thought I was OK and then WHAM, they started to eat my corals. They had to go out of the tank. I know you are talking about shrimp but as I said sometimes it takes awhile.

[ahochan]

I've caught my CBS red-handed killing both a small goby right after it was introduced and a couple of hermits.

[Ziggy953]

They are opportunistic feeders. If a small fish gets too close they could grab it. I lost a clown goby to my CBS but he hasn't messed with anything else since and he's been in the tank for about 18 months. With all things that we add to our tank there is a risk that they will exhibit the worst behavior they are "pre-programmed" with, but that goes with the hobby. As mentioned above about the angels you may not see bad behavior for some time or it may start out as soon as they get in the tank.

[chase33]

My CBS hasn't messed with anything in the tank and I've had him for about 5 months. I hope he doesn't in the future now that I read the other two posts.

[Lance M.]

At my lfs I've seen CBS's cut off the arms of serpent stars and brittle stars. But I've never had a CBS.