Coral Banded Shrimp
Scientific Name : Steponus Hispidus
Origin : Caribbean, Indo-Pacific
Temperament : Territorial (Against Shrimp)
Temperature : 72F - 82F
Maximum Size : 3 Inches
Diet : Carnivore
Difficulty : Easy
Reef Safe : Yes
Tank Size : 10 Gallons
The Coral Banded Shrimp is thought to be the most popular marine aquarium shrimp in the hobby today. Not even the popular cleaner shrimp species are as recognizable. They are also some of the cheapest marine aquarium shrimp on the market today along with peppermint shrimp. They are also known as the boxing shrimp.
Coral banded shrimp are heavily harvested for the trade from the Indo-Pacific ocean. While Steponus Hispidus may be cheap, their variants are usually more expensive. Some commonly seen variants include the blue coral banded shrimp (Steponus Tenuirostris), Gold coral banded shrimp (Steponus Zanzibaricus) and the yellow coral banded shrimp (Steponus Cyanoscelis).
While they are sometimes called cleaner shrimp, such bahavior rarely if ever takes place in captivity. They are very territorial against other species of marine aquarium shrimp and have been known to capture and consume cleaner shrimp species in captivity. With their heavily armored body and pincers, cleaner shrimp species are very vulnerable. They are also very aggressive towards members of the same species. If a pair is desired, it would be best to source a mated pair rather than attempting to pair up two individual coral banded shrimp.
Like most marine aquarium shrimp, they are very easy to feed in captivity. They are primarily carnivores and will consume any meaty foods offered. Anything from frozen foods, freeze dried foods along with flakes and pellets are some good choices to feed them. The most convenient types of food are sinking pellets. Not only are they easy to feed, but they are usually very balanced with regards to nutrition. Some of the best pellet foods are those produced by * New Life Spectrum.
Coral Banded Shrimp are born with different sexes with the females usually being larger than the males. This may be a difficult method to differentiate the sexes. However, picking a female is simplified once the presence of eggs are spotted.
There have not been many success stories with captive breeding attempts. Mortality rates for the larvae are very high. But due to the cheap cost of coral banded shrimp, not too many people are looking at breeding them for the marine aquarium industry. Combined with the fact that this shrimp has the widest distribution of any ornamental shrimp in our oceans and it is looking very unlikely that captive breeding will ever take off in the future.
Overall, coral banded shrimp are great scavengers that are very hardy and easy to feed in captivity. Unless you have a large marine aquarium, it might be better not to mix them with other marine aquarium shrimp species.
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