Coral Banded Shrimp Dead...

[Keaton]

I bought a coral banded shrimp yesterday afternoon. He seemed to be doing fine and was making his way around our tank. I came home last night and found him to be flipped on his back....dead. This morning when I woke up, I found that he had been dragged into an opening between some LR and the bristle worms (for which I bought the shrimp to remove) were eating him. Is it possible that they killed him, or was it something else?

[Bifferwine]

No, something else. Bristleworms won't kill anything. And coral banded shrimp won't kill bristleworms either.

Did you acclimate the shrimp correctly? Shrimp need longer acclimation times than fish.

And are you sure he didn't molt?

[Keaton]

That's weird, we bought the shrimp because we were told that they will eat the bristle worms....at least smaller ones. Still trying to figure out how to get rid on the really big ones.

I did some research last night...and was hoping that maybe he had molted, but it seems much too quickly since we only got him yesterday afternoon. Then when i saw the worms eating him, I was sure he was dead. What do you recommend is the best way to acclimate him? I must not have done it right...

[Bifferwine]

Maybe smaller ones, but they won't get rid of all your bristleworms. Shrimp are scavengers, and opportunistic feeders. They are not going to go through the effort of catching something as crafty as a bristleworm as long as there is other stuff in the tank for them to eat.

Why do you want to get rid of the bristleworms anyways? Your water quality and tank's appearance will suffer if you do.

He still could have molted, even though you only had him for a day. And bristleworms will eat his molted shell, that's their job and that's why they're such important animals to keep around.

The best way is to drip acclimate them over several hours. I don't use the drip method, I've always just added water to the bag slowly by hand. But shrimp need to be acclimated over several hours, much longer than fish.

[Keaton]

That is interesting. We have always been told that the bristle worms are bad for the tank and other critters in it and that you need to get rid of them. I will have to look into the benefits of them more I guess. I had no clue that they were worth keeping, and we have LOTS of them. Thanks for letting us know!

[Bifferwine]

No way! Bristleworms are one of the best cleaners you can have. There's a small subset of them (called fireworms) that have reportedly been seen eating live corals, but it's believed that the large majority (99.9%) are just plain old bristleworms, not fireworms. I myself have never seen a fireworm in a tank, or anyone else's tank that I know. The chance of getting a fireworm is so small. I have a gazillion bristleworms in my tank and they just clean up messes.

You can even buy bristleworms on ebay

[Keaton]

That's crazy! Good to know. It's a pain trying to catch them! They are pretty gross looking, but I guess if they aren't bad, I can stop setting traps!

I am fairly certain the shrimp is dead...although, it would be a nice surprise if he popped up somewhere over the next few days! They are really neat looking, so I will have to invest in another one soon.

[Bifferwine]

Well, you may not want to invest in a coral banded shrimp. Other shrimp, yes, but CBSs are well known to eat corals, fish, basically anything they can get their claws on. They are not considered reef safe, although some people have kept them with no problems. I've just heard too many stories of predatorial ones.

[yote]

I dont want ANYTHING in my tank that eats bristle worms.They are 100 times better than hermits at cleaning the tank up.
Not to mention,CBS can and will eat corals and any fish they can catch.