missing goby/pistol shrimp

mindytoy

New member
B]well yesterday i got me finally two new fish :)

a mandaring finally, and another clownfish. thanx to jimmy at seacreatures.

anyways its been like 2 days that i have not seen my pistol shrim and watchman goby come out. usually when scared they hide for minutes. but this time the rock where they have resided for almost a year, the caves are caved in. there is no exits or enterances. this month they had been working hard shifts, they already had 2 exits and one enterance. so im sort of scared, i didnt mess with my tank or move sand so im sure they themselves caved eachother in..is this regular? i cant dig them up because they are under a supporting rock, and to top it off i wouldnt want to smash them or something..should i just wait? can they dig themselves out? will they come out just in time? or is it too late? what scares me is theres THOUSANDS of those ugly centipedes, i saw one the size of a small snake! like as fat as a sharpie and as long as like 8 inches. all the other ones are small, i also have a bunch of ugly starfish that look like squids, like a round body and long tentacles, ew. what do you guys suggest?

let nature take its course, or start the rescue operation?

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IMO if you are sure they are stuck then you should help them, no need to let them die. If the cave is now blocked off its possible the are stuck. You know their behaviour better than us since they are your fish. If I thought they were trapped Id try and get them.

Did you put your LR on top of the sand? Did they build under a rock? If theres a rock on top of them I dont know how much hope there is for them.
 
yes, it has now been like 6 days :( im going to try and remove the lr and dig a bit carefully, i dont think they are squished though, because the rock hasnt moved at all its in the same spot...
 
I wouldn't touch it---the shrimp is a very good digger. The goby isn't. They're 'cryptic' species, which means they may hide for months before they're confident enough to come out. You're likely to scare them into hiding for another month or two. Mine's gone awol for 5 months and turned up.
 
really glad i read this before checking...whats weird is how they arent only hiding but their exits are completely filled in. my pistol is a great digger, i know the goby isnt, but how do they maintain themselves? like food wise, and dont they need the flow? also, nothing had changed for them to get scared all of a sudden either...
 
They sift the sand for detritus. They'll particularly like "Formula One Sinking Pellets with Garlic," fine grade. It will fall into their tunnels.
Don't worry about those worms. If you've got too many of them, be glad, because they multiply in response to how much spare food is in the tank, and decline, as well, if food gets scarcer. This prevents you having ammonia spikes and other troubles.

The fish/shrimp will move from day to day, but during their 'shy' period may come out only at tank 'dusk' and may have all their exits on the back side of your rockwork. Use a mirror behind your tank and you may spot them. But watch it---if the Goby sees himself in a mirror he'll bust a gut trying to kill that 'other fish.' They're not really aggressive---except to a rival of the same species.
 
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