cleaner shrimp + pistol shrimp/goby = certain doom?

[mykdf]

Tangalong-
What mantis am I trying to catch? You may remember . . . I was talking to you and a few others over on the mantis board (thread was called "Help me catch my mantis"). I've got a ghost in my tank. I was cycling my tank for about month. Once all my params were good, I dropped a bit of a cleaner crew in the tank (some peppermint shrimp, snails and an emerald). No sooner did I drop that emerald in there when I saw a 2 inch green mantis swimming around in there. I haven't seen him since then, despite weeks of bottle traps and a full re-aquascape (pick up rock, shake, wait for mantis. repeat).
I ended up giving up and I stocked my tank. Strangely enough, I got a Yasha too. I didn't get the pistol shrimp match because I only have 3 inches of substrate. He seems quite happy in the tank. I figure he could TRY to hook up with one of the few pistols already in the tank (hitchhikers).

 

[Tangalong]

I rememnber, mykdf...just can't find the darn thread...I have dial-up and it takes forever to find anything. So he is still running around huh? He probably won't bother anything as long as there are snails/hermits for him. My Yashi's shrimp died and I am trying to get a couple of red-banded Pistols...they are so hard to get here. The ones I got from Fosters & Smith you could hardly see. The Yashi won't come out and I keep lifting the rock up to make sure he is still alive. I'm putting a High-Fin Goby the manager at my LFS got for me today...maybe he will come out more...also, the Tangaroa is in there missing his shrimp also, so that will make 3. They will eventually go into the 20L that I have fixed up with a nice DSB...mixed reef sand, Oolite, and some really nice LR. They are small so I figure they should be good together, since there aren't any other fish to bother them. I don't know what else I could put in there to act like dither fish.

I wish I could get some hitchhikers....never had even one leg.lol

how many Pistols do you think you have? Good luck...this should be fun to watch and see what happens !!!

 

[mykdf]

I know of three pistols and one mantis in my tank. Again, they are all hitchhikers. My Yasha has not teamed up with any of them. Actually, he's sort of teamed up with my zebra dartfish (barred gobies) and hides out with them. He acts like you would expect him to: hanging out in the entrance of his cave.
As for the mantis-I would not actually believe I had one if I didn't see him. In fact, I probably wouldn't trust my own eyes if I didn't snap a picture of the fleeing mantis. Not that the picture came out but it proves that I wasn't dreaming the whole thing! LOL. He's not eaten a thing I've put in the tank (as far as I can tell). Not a single hermit or snail has been killed. I can only assume he's living on pods (of which there are quite a few).

 

[Tangalong]

Only certain type of Pistol Shrimp will pair with Gobies. Foster & Smith lists them I think. That's why your hitchhikers probably haven't paired with them..A shame when you have them for free.lol