Coral Banded Shrimp and other shrimp....

[Barbie]

A friend of mine wants to add a fire shrimp to his tank that has a coral banded shrimp in it already. I told him it probably wouldn't be a great idea from my experience, but another person told him they should be fine. Anyone have any input or personal experiences with this? Thanks for your help in advance

Barbie

 

[Ghost1]

Halloooooo
I'm the friend in question, just hadn't registered yet.
Right now I have no shrimp, but I am interested in adding a few fire/blood shrimp into the tank and wanted to know if it would be possible to keep a coral banded in the tank with them. I'll be adding the fires in first and a coral banded afterwards, so that the more aggressive shrimp doesn't have an established territory when the others are in.
The tank is a 30 hex, 3/4 full of live rock with lots of ledges and caves.

Ghost

 

[Mike and Donna]

In general I've been told that the Coral Banded will go after any other shrimp. However, my case is different. I put a cleaner shrimp in that disappeared. Assuming it had bought the farm, a week later I added a Coral Banded. Turns out the cleaner was still alive and kicking. The cleaner is the happy owner of the front of the tank during the day. I barely catch a glimpse of the Coral Banded. At night the Cleaner finds a spot to hide out, and the Coral Banded takes over. They never interact, to the best of my knowledge.

This may lend some support to the notion that adding the less territorial critter first is a better strategy.

Just my experience...certainly not a general rule!

 

[missidavey]

I have a coral banded shrimp, 2 camel shrimp, 2 peperment shrimp, and 2 cleaner shrimp in a 55 gal. reef never had any problems. I know for sure you can't put 2 coral banded shrimp together. Hope this helps.

 

[Ghost1]

Halloooooo
Thanks for the advice, I think I will give it a try and let you know how it goes.

Ghost

 

[AnotherGoldenTeapot]

Interesting....

I've long wanted a Cleaner Shrimp, but have been worried of difficulties caused by my Coral Banded Shrimp.

I'll give this a go - next time someone imports them into NZ.

 

[Miklos]

I had a rather large coral banded shrimp in my 29g tank when it was etup.The coral banded shrimp winded up killing and eating all four of my peppermint shrimp.Then my arrow crab ate a cleaner shrimp I had and then that same arrow crab ate the coral banded shrimp.I would say be careful and if you have a large tank,you might be fine.My tank was 29 gallons and due to territory problems,the cb shrimp ate the peppermint shrimp.
Nick

 

[Anonymous]

CBS are usually fine with other shrimp species i.e. Lysmata (Peppermint and White Striped Cleaners) however they will kill each other unless a mated pair. The CBS and the Arrow crab have a Hatfield and McCoy's type of relationship. No good will come of that mix, ever.

CBS in general are scavengers but can create some minor havoc and the tend to have somewhat of a heavy footprint as the move about the tank stepping on corals and whatnot but they don't do much damage.

Putting the Fires in first would be a good idea as it will give them a chance to establish a territory. Wait a few months then add the CBS and you should be fine.

 

[Anonymous]

I added a CBS to my 75 and then later added a white stripe cleaner shrimp. I've never seen them have a problem. both are alive and well. Furthermore, they even share the same side of the tank and i've seen them get in really close proximity to each other during feeding time. No problems.

po

 

[Anonymous]

I bought a pair of CBS from a fish store that said they were a pair. They were hanging out together in the tank when I bought them, so I think the salesguy was being honest. When I got them home they started removing each others limbs. The little one is in the refugium now. They've never bothered anyone else, except once the larger one chased the dragonet away.

Btw, I heard that CBS were hermaphroditic. Anyone know how to pair them up?

 

[Anonymous]

It happens - on occasion a mated pair will arrive at the shop with one alive and one dead. However I suspect thats some idiot at the wholesaler trying to 'create' a mated pair. Same thing could have happened to your LFS, or your LFS could have done the same thing or it could simply have been a lovers spat (just think you had your own little COPS episode going on in your tank!).

I don't think anyone has ever been successful in pairing them up. They are collected as pairs in the wild.

 

[davelin315]

I have a coral banded, a cleaner (used to have 2, one has disappeared recently, possible old age?), 3 fire shrimp, and 2 peppermint shrimp. The coral banded stays hidden most of the day, the remaining cleaner has its area staked out, the fire shrimp roam all over, and the 2 peppermints hide together until lights out and then come out to eat. I really don't think that adding the most aggressive last works for shrimp in the sense that it really doesn't matter. My order was cleaner, banded, another cleaner, 2 fire shrimp, 2 more (1 tiny one got killed by one of the bigger ones), and then the 2 peps.

 

[bensenvill]

I've had a coral banded in my 46g tank for almost a year now. ya he can be a real SOB sometimes. I've only tried adding one other shrimp with him about 6 months ago.I had never seen him since I added him to the tank (assumed dead). And then a few weeks ago I saw him for about 2 seconds. So I guess he survived. You may just want to stick with the coral banded because the nice part with the length of their antennias you can almost always see them.

~Terry

 

[fish tales]

My cbs has gone thru 2 peppermints and a cleaner shrimp. She doesnt bother anything else but other shrimp.
Jeff

 

[Mabu]

I've had a CBS and a cleaner coexist with no problem. One time the cleaner got "too close" to the CBS and had his antennae trimmed... he learned his lesson then and the two never had any problem.

I wish I could get rid of this obnoxious peppermint shrimp in my tank - if a CBS will go after him, that's incentive for me to add one to my tank!

 

[wreckscuba]

I have a coral banded shrimp with 4 peperments never had any trouble with them. And the peperments clean up my apitisa problem. They are in a 135gl