Coral Banded Shrimp role-playing as a Cleaner Shrimp.

[mirski57]

Don't know if it's a fetish thing my CBS has or not, but I've never heard of this before (to my knowledge). My CBS shows all the properties of a cleaner shrimp. I though only cleaner shrimp rode the backs of other fish and picked them clean.

If I can catch it again by pic or video, I will. My Yellow Tang lets my CBS ride on his back/side while he cruises the tank. The CBS and Tang seem to love it. Scary though, since I know my CBS is a meat eater and (s)he's plenty big enough (4-5" body) to help itself to any of the fish in my 90 gallon tank.

Just thought I'd share and see if there's anyone else out there with a CBS that shows strange behavior.

Thanks,
Mirski57

[Flanders]

CBS are cleaner shrimp in the wild, so I don't think it's that surprising. I think they usually clean bigger fish than we keep in our aquariums. That's why we don't often see the cleaning behavior.

It must be neat to watch.