banded coral shrimp aggressive to fish?

[dipan]

I've seen my banded coral shrimp try to nip my two fish, but they're generally too fast. But today I noticed a slightly frayed tail on my black capped basslet and now I'm getting annoyed. It's such a nice beautiful peaceful fish and I won't have anything prey on it. Has anyone else noticed this aggressive behavior from their banded coral shrimp? I put him in there mainly to keep the bristleworm population in check. Is there another way to do that?

Anyone want to trade a banded coral shrimp for a couple peppermints/cleaner shrimp? He's a good size and has molted four times in my 20 gallon, so maybe he's just outgrown it.

[JimD]

Coral banded shrimp are very aggresive preditors. They are opportunists and active hunters to say the least and should not be housed with small, community type fish or inverts. Bristleworms are a valuable part of your clean up crew and should be allowed to remain in the tank unless they get to be ridiculously large. Keep the worms, ditch the shrimp.. lol

[dipan]

I don't want to get rid of the detrivores, but just wanted to keep the population in check. I've seen many posts about bristleworm laden systems, but there are probably other factors like overfeeding. Honestly, the shrimp has been a model citizen up til now. He's just getting much bigger. Maybe I'll get that sump I've been meaning to get and put him in there.

[cheetum]

I had to get rid of mine It was so mean I don't think it liked itself ! They are ok when small but the bigger they get the more predatory they get !

[Kristy]

I think ours has self esteem issues also, and therefore is lashing out at everyone else. We got him as a replacement shrimp after our hawks ate our cleaner and peppermint shrimps and we wanted one they would not harass. We have since regretted the decision, but have been unable to get him out of our 210g reef. We have a really large pistol shrimp (2+ inches) with anger management issues, who we would like to vacate also. These are mistakes we would not make again. Such is life in our hobby.... Mike (& Kristy)