Coral banded shrimp eating bristle worm - Now i know why they disappear.

S

SALT

Premium Member
[Well I could not believe my eyes when I saw it, but there it was. I woke up thirsty at around 04:00 AM last night, so I went to the kitchen to get a drink. Well, like any obsessed reefer, on the way back through the living room I grabbed the flashlight to give the tank a late night/early morning look and there it was. My Coral Banded Shrimp was hanging up side down and trying to munch on a big and very squirmy bristle worm. The worm must have been 3 or 4 inches long. The shrimp kept on moving him around in his pinchers and biting at him. This went on for about 30 seconds and then the light must have distracted the shrimp and he let the worm go. I bet if I had not showed up, the shrimp would have compelted the meal.

WOW, I was always wondering why my worm population was so low and when I added them they seemed to disappear. I guess that shrimp is pretty darn hungry if he is going after them. Maybe I need to start spot feeding him and generally feed the whole tank even more. Right now I try to feed 3 times a day. Flake in the morning and then half of a frozen cube in the after noon and the other half in the in evening. Every one eat and they all look fat and happy. Present in habitants are a pair of false percs, 6 line wrasse (also a bristle worm eater I believe), a coral beauty, a copper band butterfly, cleaner shrimp, an emerald crab and 20 nassarius, 20 cerith, 8 astrea and 3 turbo snails. I use to have about 20 scarlet hermits 20 micro hermits but they have all disappeared and left behind the empty shells. Maybe I starved them. :very sad:

Well anyway, has anyone see there shirmp eating bristle worms before?

Does is sound like I am not feeding enough?

Any and all input would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Stanley T''' - SALT]
 
[It's kinda like peppermint shrimp will eat aiptasia. No other shrimp (that I know of) will eat aiptasia. Same goes for the coral banded. They will eat bristleworms, but other shrimp do not.]
 
[I wish mine would get to work then, because I have a huge population of huge bristleworms. To the point that I have been considering traps.]
 
[Well Doc,

Seeing as we are almost neighbors, maybe I can come by on my way home from work one day and grab a few so I can keep my shrimp fed. :D]



Edited By SALT on 1085500513
 
[I seem to have a ton of them myself - however, am of two minds on reducing the population - I tend to overfeed as I'm spotfeeding as well as general feeding. I've always had a pretty good population of bristleworms - jeez! it looks like the bottom comes alive when I feed! So I consider them part of the cleanup crew to keep uneaten mysis and krill from just rotting away. Seems like any hermits I add are there for a few days and then seemingly evaporate even tho I use SeaFlor mix to add a zillion of empty shells for them... so it seems like it's up to the bristleworms to do cleanup that the hermits and peppermints usually do but don't...]
 
[I have had a CBS for years, until recently it disappeared. It ate bristleworms, as do Arrow Crabs and Long Nosed Hawkfish.

I'd rather keep them under control, so they only come out at night to clean up detritus. I don't need big ones fighting my fish for a meal each day.]
 
@SALT wrote:
[Well Doc said:
[Kind of like those two f&$@&*n clown fish I have....catch em' and they're yours :D

Marc- I just reciently got a long nose hawk myself hoping it would help out some. Time will tell.]
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