Wrasse eats my cleaner shrimps

[Dragonreef202]

not a good way to start a Tuesday morning waking up to see 1 of my cleaner shrimps in my Melanurus wrasse (Reggie's) mouth. I thought they were peaceful . Now i'll be trying to catch him to put him in the predator tank. There's no way i'm keeping him in the tank where I like to keep a reef safe environment and he's eating my tenants. I may wait until he buries himself in sand at night and grab him. Then he'll have a snowflake eel to deal with.

 

[cgdcinc]

Mine is a killer as well, but I love him. Two cleaner shrimp and he got both of them. Not to mention the snails that he kills when they get lax or fall to the sand bed. He makes quick work of them. On the other hand my tank is pest free and he doesn’t bother my corals or other fish. I didn’t expect it, but have learned how to work around him. He really is the coolest. But I understand your frustration! Lol.

 

[Jesterrace]

My Coral Beauty and juvie Melanurus both tore apart my second cleaner shrimp (the first they left alone). To be fair though, I think the second one died before they started picking on it. Either way, I am done with shrimp for the time being. Melanurus generally leave corals alone but are known invert munchers.

 

[declanisadog]

I added five peppermint shrimp at the same time to a tank once. Only two made it to the sand. Wrasses are stone cold killers.

 

[Dragonreef202]

they are colorful killers these wrasse's are

 

[67chevellemalibu2]

I have a Melanarus and a Christmas with 2 Fire and a Coral Banded Shrimp with no issues.

 

[ca1ore]

Melanarus is noted as reef safe 'with caution' for precisely this reason. Most of them, though not all, are murder on crabs, worms and shrimp. Sometimes this is a good thing, sometimes it's not. It's usually a good idea to research a fish before buying it. Unfortunately I don't always follow my own advice. I bought a dusky about five years ago, without realizing how big it would get or that it would eat most of my cleanup crew. On the positive side, it also ate pyramid snails and flatworms.

 

[Dragonreef202]

He was doing great the night before I had fed him some raw shrimp since I feed my eel as well he was taking shrimp off my Duncan coral along with taking shrimp from my hammer coral as well he should've been full. Except I seen him waking up to a shrimp in his mouth.