Has your pistol shrimp killed anything in your tank?

[burton117]

Currently, I have a tiger pistol shrimp and a yellow watchman goby. Until today, I had a flame angel as well.

I found the flame angel dead today. Two days ago I noticed that the back fin of the flame angel was kind of tattered and I decided to keep an eye on things. Then yesterday I couldn't see the flame angel at all. My wife said she had seen it earlier, so I wasn't worried. Sometimes the flame just hides in the live rock.

This morning, I saw the flame dead under the live rock half eaten and I really suspect the Pistol shrimp.

Anybody else have problems with the pistol shrimp?

 

[dzeadow]

I have 2 tiger pistol shrimp and they haven't killed anything in my tank. They both have gobies (aurora and ywg) and I have 2 baby clowns, all kinds of inverts (pom pom crab, porcelain crab, snails, hermits, etc), and I've never seen a dead anything around their hole. They're mostly blind and most of the clicking and popping you hear is a warning not actually a death pop. I'm going to guess its something else, but you know, every animal is its own animal...

 

[burton117]

Yeah. I am not sure because I did not see the Flame Angel get killed.

It is pretty likely that if the Flame Angel died from other causes, it would eventually end up getting eaten by the pistol shrimp.

However, as the Flame Angel liked to swim between the live rock and hide a lot, it would often swim through the live rock right next to and through the lair of the Tiger Pistol Shrimp/ Yellow Watchman Goby. Then the pistol shrimp would chase the Flame Angel away. (POP, POP, POP!!)

I have no doubt the Yellow Watchman hated the Flame Angel as the Flame Angel would often chase the Yellow Watchman back into his lair. Maybe the Pistol Shrimp and Watchman Goby were plotting together and finally had their revenge! :sad2:

The Yellow Watchman Goby doesn't do anything to my pair of Ocellaris Clowns and vice versa. The clownfish pretty much ignore the Goby and he doesn't hide even when they get super close.

The peppermint shrimp has been doing fine which in my mind would have been a more likely target for attack from the Tiger Pistol Shirimp.

 

[b_newman]

I haven't had any casualties since I got the shrimp. My fish do seem to be more social now...maybe they're avoiding the pistol shrimp. The only time I hear a "pop" is at night so I assume it's nocturnal, but everybody seems ok the next morning.

 

[dzeadow]

generally the night time pops are from the nocturnal scavengers that either get into their hole or go by it. I, unfortunately, happened to get 2 male tigers and they do some nocturnal activity themselves so when they intrude on eachother's dens I hear about 3-5 pops in sequence and maybe a couple more after that. Its amazing to see how blind these guys are during the day time when they do the same thing tho. The one will chase the other while popping, if the one being chased makes the right turn out of the reach of the 1st's feelers, the first won't find it even if they're 3" away in broad daylight.

 

[Guygettnby]

i havent had any fish get killed, but i have had it kill inverts. snails,crabs and shrimp.

 

[b_newman]

I had hoped that it wouldn't kill other shrimps, as I need a peppermint shrimp for an aiptasia outbreak. Do/does yours constantly burrow and move sand around? Almost every morning I awake to find more sand moved to the front and side of the tank from under the rocks. I'm worried about a rockslide.

 

[dzeadow]

my tigers move sand all over the place and have new holes every other day and close up old ones. I have a pep shrimp in my tank with them along w/ 4 sexy shrimp... I used to have 4 sexy shrimp and then ended up with 2 and now bought another 2, but I can't say for certain that the pistols did anything to the first two since I haven't seen any other deaths from them.

 

[burton117]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12814669#post12814669 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by b_newman
I had hoped that it wouldn't kill other shrimps, as I need a peppermint shrimp for an aiptasia outbreak. Do/does yours constantly burrow and move sand around? Almost every morning I awake to find more sand moved to the front and side of the tank from under the rocks. I'm worried about a rockslide.

My peppermint shrimp has had no problems with my pistol shrimp. My peppermint (only 1 in my 29 gallon) has hunted down and eaten all of my aiptasia over a couple of months. I haven't seen aiptasia in a really long time. My pistol shrimp also helps expose more and more sides of live rock (by moving substrate around) for my peppermint to go over and make sure there are no aiptasia on the newly exposed surfaces.

I have learned from experienced reefers here on Reef Central that the key to preventing rock slides with a pistol shrimp is to put the rocks directly on the bottom glass of the aquarium. Then, add sand or whatever your substrate is around these rocks. That way, no matter how deep the pistol shrimp burrows, the rocks will not collapse onto the pistol shrimp. Also, this will prevent any general instability in your live rock arrangement and the injury/death of other reef inhabitants.

 

[burton117]

Do you guys directly feed your pistol shrimp and watchman goby pair? Does this make a difference whether or not it will kill other inhabitants? Or do you just consider the pistol shrimp/watchman goby part of your clean up crew, eating food leftovers?

I would imagine if you get some kind of pellets or something for bottom feeders, they would be satisfied and not feel the need to kill other tank inhabitants for food.

Just a thought, I would like to see if anybody else has tried this.

 

[dzeadow]

all my gobies are very active eaters and will eat out of the water column, I have 3 yashas in one tank and a ywg and an aurora in another, and a randall's in a 3rd. The shrimp will either eat stuff that the goby brings back or sift through the sand looking for goodies. I used to target feed my tigers but they don't need it. I've never directly fed my randall's and I've had them just as long as my tigers (in different tanks) for just as long, about 2 or so months and they're still alive and kickin crazy style. I have 5 randall's and 2 tigers

 

[dzeadow]

oh, and they're on and off of pellets, I've seen them take it, but not always