Experience with these particular saron shrimp and small inverts?

[Tired]

Will this particular species of saron shrimp go after itty-bitty crabs, split pea to bean size? I'm trying to figure out where to put mine. Love this little monster, but I'm reading they can wind up outright predatory if hungry, and I can't tell if that's only one particular species or all the sarons. 

[mcarroll]

Missing pic?

[Tired]

That would be helpful, wouldn't it.

I think it's S. marmoratus? Really neat little animal. Those two upward-jutting bits above the eyes (antennae?) twiddle around when it runs into an interesting bit of stimulus. I have it in a breeder box for now, while I work out where it's going to live, and so far it hasn't murdered any of the baby gorilla crabs in with it. 

Check out those ring spots! It's not a conventionally pretty animal, but it's neat as heck once you stop and look at it for a bit, especially if it's moving at the time. 

[mcarroll]

From a quick survey, it sounds like they are omnivorous scavengers...if so, then they are kind of in the same category with hemits and Nassarius snails.  

 

Sounds like they don't mind snacking on anything that doesn't fight back tho, so that could mean coral polyps if they get hungry/motivated enough.

[Tamberav]

I probably would not trust it with tiny crabs as Saron males are really aggressive to each other... leads me to believe they can do some damage if they want to. 

 

They are super cool and can change color.. 🙂 Mine never touched coral. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

I've had S. marmoratus on and off for ~10 years. They never touched any of my corals (of all types, ranging from SPS, LPS, softies, shrooms, zoas up to NPS), but they do have a habit of nibbling on macroalgae. They're quite reclusive though, but can change colors (which is quite beautiful). Once they get comfortable enough, they'll be up and about in the tank more often. Mine ate everything from frozen to pellets. No issues with any of them whatsoever. 

[Tired]

Can definitely confirm the macroalgae thing. I've just spotted mine picking heavily at the edge of the dividing wall for the breeder box, trying to get at a bit of red macroalgae on the other side. I gave it a clump of non-invasive hair algae pulled from my opae ula tank, and it's now sitting happily on that, picking away. Given that it's ignoring pellet food (currently) to eat the algae, I'd say these might need some amount of algae to eat. Not terribly common in the shrimp we keep, as far as I know, though I suppose most of ours are either fish-cleaning shrimp or anemone symbiotes. 

 

I've ordered one of those little flat-pack pre-drilled picos @Tamberav pointed us towards, with a vague plan of setting it up directly above the larger tank. This little critter might end up in there. The other option is a HOB 'fuge. I don't plan on putting it in the main tank, just in case it might cause trouble for my very small roughhead blennies. 

[Tamberav]

I can say I kept it with a Pictus blenny and Caribbean sailfin blenny and it wasn't a problem with those. Idk if yours are smaller. Still, I can understand being apprehensive. 

[Tired]

Roughhead blennies max out at an inch and a quarter, and are about as skinny as barnacle blennies of the same size. The saron shrimp probably wouldn't touch them, but its claws could fit into their hidey-holes, so I'm trying to decide if I'm suspicious enough that I want to put it somewhere else.

 

Another benefit of putting it in a little add-on container is that it can't vanish into the rockwork, though of course it would have plenty of places to hide in said add-on.