Quick question about banded coral shrimp.

[ijneb]

Hello,
Ive come to find that this board knows what they are talking about, i looked for information about Banded Coral Shrimp, but couldnt find any.

I am looking for a pair, and most petshops say they are hard to come by, I dont know if they are telling me this so they can charge me more for when they do get some in. I didnt notice anything obvious about differences in sexes, or maybe they were all one sex (about 10 shrimp total). Is there a way to tell a difference? any type of different marking on the male?

Would it work if i could find a male and female and put them together? or am i being stupid?

Please help- thanks!
Ben

[ijneb]

This shrimp:
http://www.divegallery.com/banded_coral_shrimp_103K.jpg

[DgenR8]

ijneb,
[welcome]
What I know about these shrimp is limited, but I'll share. If you put two males, or two females together, you'll be lucky to have one of them left after the battle. A male and A female might pair up, might just tolerate eachother, or might fight. I believe that if you want two of them, you will have to buy two that were caught together, as a pair.

[kmk2307]

As far as the price goes E-tropicals sells them for $4.00:

http://www.etropicals.com/product/prod_Display.cfm?siteid=45&pCatId=1352

Other places shouldn't be much more than that.

Kevin

[epon]

I have one of these CBS, before his tankmate (blue devil damsel) got sucked up into a eheim powerfilter, he would " lock up " in some type of underwater wwf wrestling hold with the damsel. They would just kinda calmly push each other to an fro , almost like a standoff more than a fight to the death. This was also in a " bad boy " 10g I have setup. Personally I wouldn't trust the CBS to be a well behaved tankmate to anyone but a blue devil. Maybe they were hugging, and were long lost friends, bullys from back on their block on the reef? :D


ps. I finally added a MJ screen to the eheim after it ate the damsel. :(


2048 x 1536 pic of CBS's dinner - (selcon and liquid vitamin enriched sliver of a ocean whitefish)

http://community.webshots.com/image5/2/53/3/60625303DNicGw_fs.jpg

[Paul B]

In nature they are almost always paired up. I always see them that way and they are very common. In the Caribbean you will see a pair maybe every 50' or so. I had a female and I put in a very small male, in a few weeks the male grew and they just mated for life. They would spawn every few weeks and the eggs would always hatch. They would not go anywhere alone and the male defended the female when she had eggs. That picture is a male. The females have small week looking pinchers or claws and the male is larger (if they are both adults)
Don't put in two of the same sex and they do not get along with arrow crabs too good

[ozmonster]

My question is: why would you want a CBS in your reef tank?

The are voracious predators to the critters in your DSB. They can significantly diminish the functionality of your sand bed by eating the beneficial animals that keep the sandbed alive.

oz

[ijneb]

Ozm- Ive always liked CBS, so wanted to see if i could find out how to make a pair for my tank.

what kinda shrimp would you suggest?

[ozmonster]

I've got three scarlet cleaner shrimp in my 125g reef and they do not hurt a thing. They spawn every 2-3 weeks and this supplements my coral feeding. They clean parasites off your fish and can control outbreaks of ich. They will eat from my hand. I put a mysis in between my fingers and they jump on my palm and dig-in.

Also harlequin shrimp are really cool (great colors). I've got a mated pair in my 29g reef. They don't bother anything but starfish (their only food source).

I have also heard that Fire(blood) shrimp are reef safe but I don't have any experience with them.

oz

[ijneb]

Do you have any pictures of your scarlets?

Are they the same as the skunk cleaners?

[ozmonster]

no pics but skunk and scarlet cleaner shrimp are one and the same.

oz

[colemanitis]

I've always enjoyed my CBS, he's never posed any problems in my reef tank. However, I do wish he would come out a bit more during the day. If something were to happen to him, I would definitely replace him with another. I've never witnessed him picking at my substrate, he spends all his time hanging from and picking at the LR. Also, I've never heard of these being hard to find, I can go to my LFS and get on any day of the week for around $10 or so.

[ozmonster]

Colemantis:

The reason why you don't see the CBS messing with your sandbed is evidenced by (as you posted) the fact that he only comes out at night. Here's a link to Dr. Ron's forum where he asserts the following:

Banded Coral Shrimp are exceptionally voracious and devastating predators. They eat many of the beneficial animals in marine aquaria, and will definitely keep a sand bed from developing properly.


http://archive.reefcentral.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&threadid=132500&highlight=coral+banded+shrimp

oz