I am just wondering what everyone's experiences are with the Coral Banded Shrimp. Some sources say it is aggressive only to other shrimp while others say it is peaceful and some just say these guys suck. Just wondering what their behavior is like in your nano reef, mainly with crabs and corals/anemones.

I have a gold coral banded shrimp. The only time I see it is during feeding. It is very passive, does not bother anything in my tank. I do not have any other shrimp though.

Mine is fairly territorial. It will fearlessly launch itself with all 30 or so arms flailing at my clownfish. But in its defence the clowns like to try and whack it with their tails. It all makes for a very entertaining scene!

What at the chances that it could get a hold of one of your clowns?

A CBS really depends on the individual. I also think they get bolder with age/size. The small ones are just as docile as a skunk cleaner, but big ones will try to capture fish. They're cool shrimp though, worth the risk IMO, especially if you get a baby.

I've got a mated pair of cbs in my 10g with a skunkcleaner and no one has a problem with the other...even with it next to the cbs's eggs...it seems hit or miss with the way they act

I've got a red coral banded and it was great when it was you but now its always going after my fish. The day it catches one is the day it will reside in my dirty water bucket.

I had a large CBS in my first setup. I had to get rid of him after I watched him catch and eat one of my damsels. I now have a smaller species and have had no problems. I cant remember the species name but it has gold with blue legs.

Do they often nip at corals?

nope they are completely reef safe.. they usually like to hide but you will see it come out sometimes when you feeed

my CBS is a beast! knocks crap over everyday. eats like a mad man. it is in a 6 gallon though

Is it really big? I would assume that in my 20g I wouldn't have as much of a prob with it knocking over corals?

my cbs once ate a damsel, be careful with them in a small tank. altho they dont bother corals the thing i hate about them is that they will dig inside you lps after u target feed even if you fed the shrimp first.

Mine is really curious and a couple times has gone over to play with freshly glued frags and gotten a pincher stuck in the super glue. great entertainment. CBS bolting around the tank with a 1inch piece of rock and coral stuck on its arm.

LOL

I just recently picked up a CBS about 3 weeks ago and he is def the most entertaining thing in my tank, he is a little aggressive (claws at my fish when they get too close) but they are way to fast. As for my corals he just checks em out once in a while, i've never seen him pinch or prod at any of them.

i once had a CBS in my fish only tank. i was a nood and used those fish food capsules that has food in them while i was away on vacation or somethin, and when i came back the CBS was reallt fat and laying on the food capsule, which was 75% gone.

(i used a 7-day capsule, and i was only gone for 3 days...)

If you have anything that you target feed the shrimp will try to get it out even if it has been feed. If you target feed a Duncan for example the shrimp gets hunger later and will try to get the food that the Duncan takes hours to digest the same with Acanas. That being said not all shrimp do this, and I have had good one and bad ones there is just no way to tell. If I had it to over again I would either choose coral banded shrimp and arrow shrimp or anemones, clams, duncans or anything I target feed I would choose the invertebrate over the shrimp.

I have had my CBS for about 2 weeks and he seems fine. Very interesting to watch. Can't speak much for how he acts around corals as I only have some zoas atm, but we shall see.

I have one right now....but not for much longer!!! the lights just came on and it caught my yellow coris wrasse!!!! SOB!!! He is going back to the LFS! SO MAD!!!!!!

They are territorial, mine has been in the tank about a month and still chases my peppermint shrimp if he gets too close. He'll also box with my finger or the chopstick I use to move things around (looks like boxing because he can't get his claws around either) and I've seen him grab the peppeh (the peppermint shrimp) by the whisker.

That being said, they're sort of clumsy, compared to my peppermint shrimp he's slower and seems to be less coordinated with his legs, and are usually pretty quiet. Can't speak about fish because my tank has none, but i've got a bunch of LPS, mushrooms, zoas, and nothing has been bothered.