Coral banded shrimp problem

[archon]

Alright ive had my coral banded shrimp for a while now... i noticed he has always been aggressive. I assumed he was just being protective of his spot. He would always pick at the hermit crabs and snails who got near him. Well i thought they were peaceful, but since he never hurt anything i figured he was okay.
Well today i went to the store and bought a green mandarin dragonet. REALLY cool fish. So i put him in and ive been watching him from now and then he peaks out... a little shy at first, but he finally came out. He swam up next to the coral banded shrimp and the shrimp attacked him! He grabbed him and had him by his big claw by the dragonets fin. I sat there for like 3 seconds waiting for the dragonet to swim away, but the shrimp had him good. So i had to break it up. Thankfully my dragonet still looks okay. I hope nothing happend to him.
I was wondering if this is normal behavior and what should i do about this. I really dont want my coral banded shrimp harrassing my other fish...

 

[tizzo]

AFTER I had added a CBS to my tank, I read several threads that said they were aggressive to fish. Hopefully the manderine will remember and stay away from him!

 

[salty rob]

I added a CBS last week. He has been mellow so far.
Have you seen your's shed the shell yet? It is really cool. They shed everything, including antennae in one piece. I thought I had two CBS for a few minutes.

 

[rossim]

Originally posted by Salty Rob
I added a CBS last week. He has been mellow so far.
Have you seen your's shed the shell yet? It is really cool. They shed everything, including antennae in one piece. I thought I had two CBS for a few minutes.
Did you have to remove the molted shell, or did you keep it in there. I just had mine delived from SWF and will be adding them to the tank today.

 

[salty rob]

I was not sure what to do, so I netted most of it out.:thinking:

 

[rbmount]

It won't hurt to leave the molt in, the clean up crew will take care of it.

 

[belothsurf]

CBS's are aggressive, and Mandarins are not much of a fighter. I've lost my Mandarin to my Yellow Tang, who continued to harass the Mandarin. He would swim backwards towards the Mandarin and swish his tail at him, and the wimpy Mandarin would just back away. My other experience was with a CBS and a cleaner, and the CBS made a quick meal out of the cleaner. At the time, I had a Bi-color Parrot that took care of the CBS, but not soon enough to save the poor cleaner shrimp.......this is getting me depressed.....

 

[bdhough]

I would get rid of the CBS or the Mandarin. The CBS will kill him eventually. It will be in the night most likely.
Do you fully understand the requirements of the mandarin?
A good rule with any CBS is to keep them away from any sort of rock dweller. Meaning any sort of fish that consistanly hugs the rocks. Such as dragonettes, jawfish, gobies, etc, or any slow moving fish.....

 

[vito525]

I have a Scooter Blenny and CBS. Never had a problem with the CBS. Maybe yours is hungry, do you feed him?? about 3 times a week I split some sinking food into small chunks and he scurries to get one and the hermits and Nemo get the rest.

 

[zenway9]

the only time my CBS is aggressive is when a fish bothers him. otherwise, he chills in a little cove between my LR

 

[mudplayerx]

I have both a CBS and a mandarin dragonet and they don't bother one another. I have 60lbs of live rock in a 55 gallon tank. The CBS stays on the left side of the tank behind a large live rock. The dragonet just hovers all around the rocks and never goes near the CBS.

 

[susan g]

i have a cbs for almost 5 months in fact he was the first addition to my 55 gallon tank other than my crabs and snails i have since added a dragonet and a yellow tang and i have not had any problems I also have 2 dominos and a orange tailed damsel and 2 starfish and even a pencil urchin i recently addad a Koran angel and so far i have not had any aggression problems.

 

[benter]

I had to get rid of my cbs..way too aggressive for my taste...or maybe his taste for my fish was too much for me...never have another one ..JMO..and yes, I know some fish,(or cbs), have different personalities...I guess I just got the lucky one..

 

[monalisa]

Yeah, I've seen my cbs go after my fish too...the little bugger. It seems that when he molts he gets more and more aggressive. I think I'll have to eventually get rid of him, but for now my fish just avoid him.
Lisa :happyfish