Gobies changing shrimp partners?

[hogfanreefer]

I've had a Yasha's goby and small pistol shrimp pair on the far right of my 6' tank for about 6 months. 48 hours ago I transferred my Randalls goby and candy cane shrimp from my nano. I released them on the far left side of the tank and watched the shrimp dig in under a rock and the goby hide under a big stunner chalice.

This afternoon when I fed the Yasha's came out from under a rock about a foot from where he usually lives accompanied by the candy cane shrimp. The other pistol shrimp is still under the same rock he and the Yasha used to live under. The Randal's is MIA at the moment. Will this work out? The Randal's hiding place is about 4 1/2' from where the other pistol lives. Will they find each other?

 

[snorvich]

Two shrimp gobies in the same tank often have "pistol shrimp theft"; sometimes it is a swap, sometimes one goby gets both/all

 

[jimroth]

In my tank, the stronger goby has always taken the bigger Tiger Pistol, the smaller Candy Cane is considered second best.