yellow tang eating cleaner shrimp

[andrew79]

i added a couple of cleaner shrimp to my tank. my tang made a meal of 2 of them. i took him out and put him in my qt tank. he has been their for about 1 month. would i be able to put him back in the display tank and reintroduce him as a new fish without problems or do you think i should find him a new home. he is only about 3" but i dont want to keep him in the 20gal any longer
thanks

 

[lionstorm]

sounds like a one or the other situation, if he's eating your cleaner shrimp you should probably get rid of either the tang or the shrimp.

 

[psychoskater]

I dont think putting a yellow tang with shrimp is a good idea because they are basicely not compatible, but im not sure if putting the tang in again as a new fish will make him not notice the shrimp in the tank.

 

[dacia]

I had a yellow tang eat my CBS, so I returned him to my LFS in exchange for a mandarin goby and another CBS.

 

[ross]

I had no idea that a tang would eat shrimp. I am going to get a purple tang for my tank and some cleaner shrimp. Would the tang just eat the shrimp?

 

[tangman99]

Originally posted by psychoskater
I dont think putting a yellow tang with shrimp is a good idea because they are basicely not compatible, but im not sure if putting the tang in again as a new fish will make him not notice the shrimp in the tank.
Wait a minute here. Are we saying that a yellow tang and cleaner shrimp are definitely not compatible or is this just one of those things that happen sometime. I want to know for sure as I have a Yellow Tang and I plan on addition a couple of cleaner shrimp.

 

[a&m aggie 04']

ive seen yellow tangs w/ shrimp lots of times, but some fish just act differently.

 

[huckleberry]

i have two cleaners, a blood red scarlet, 2 camel back shrimp and 2 pepperments (i love watching shrimp) in wth my tang and nothing seems out of place with them... the tang loves to be cleaned by the cleaners... although i did notice that i am missing a CBS... but i thougth he just died b/c he wasn't eating... but, my tang doesn't mess with my shrimp...
hmmm... now i do wonder what happend to my CBS... damn thing was so shy it wasn't eating and i hardly ever saw it anyway, so, i really dind't miss it until i read this post....

 

[bwmichael21]

A coral banded shrimp not eating ? mine will never pass up a meal, your aware that they are nocturnal and hide most of the day

 

[dacia]

My CBS eats like a horse as well. It is so funny to watch all of his arms reaching for the food when it sinks towards his rock. If mine was not eating, I'd wonder what was wrong with him.

 

[tangman99]

Now that I think of it, I did have two camel shrimp in with my yellow tang for a long time. He never bothered them so I'm guessing he will be fine with a cleaner.

 

[zibnata]

have had cleaner shrimp with my yellow tang for months with no problem . Ironically I lost the tang and 1 shrimp in the power outage, or maybe they ate each other

 

[daniel411]

I've had a large yellow tang with cleaner shrimp for over a year without any problems. I've never even heard of anyone having a problem before now. Mine will even let the shrimp clean it.

 

[daniel411]

On another note. 20 gallons is too small for a yellow tang!

 

[andrew79]

i know, i want to put him back in my display tank and reintroduce him like a new fish but i dont know if he will continue this behavior
(in my display I had the tang first and then added the cleaners) if situation was reversed do you think this might work

 

[andrew79]

so do you tink it would be ok to put him back in the display(what can i provide for him so this wont happen again (i feed him alge waffers,sheets,zooplankton)not all at once
thanks

 

[wrassecal]

Are you positive the yellow tang ate the shrimp? Nothing else could have happened? I have always kept cleaner shrimp with my tang and never had or heard of this. Is it possible something else happened to the shrimp?

 

[spsfreak100]

Tangs are naturally herbavorous and will not attack and kill their food (besides some species of algae). Unless you saw the tang actually go up to the shrimp, attack and kill it, and then eat it then we have another discussion. I've kept tangs with shrimp for almost 2 years now. I've never once had any problems.
Take Care,
Graham

 

[simpdaddy]

My Yellow Tang is getting along fine with my cleaner and CBS. The one I was worried about was the spotted hawk but they're getting along fine.
Can't say that for my Bangaii Cardinal. He didn't even last a week in the tank.

 

[andrew79]

after i put the shrimp in the tank the tang would constantly nip at their wiskers(dont know what they are called) 2 of them he bit off completly and i think the shrimp died of stress and after that he began to eat them he moved them all off the live rock so they were hiding behind the power heads. as soon as i took the tang out the 2 remaining cleaners went back on the live rock and began with their normal routine so would the tang be ready to go back in the tank ( i had one cleaner in before i got the tang and they did fine but my tank crashed the cleaner died. I added the new ones when every thing was ok and this happened)
thanks
andrew