My pistol shrimp is really smart!

[Coelli]

Well, maybe not that smart since he hasn't figured out he's supposed to live WITH our yellow watchman, not in an apartment next door. He's a small red-banded pistol, maybe 1.25".

Anyway I had all sugar sand in my tank but recently added some new sand with lots of bits of rubble in it for him and the goby. We don't see the pistol very much but I've noticed he's been been remodeling the front entrance of his burrow. Tonight I tried to spot feed some mysis to lure him out to check on him. The nassarius snails swarmed the food (of course) but the shrimp was feeling hungry or brave or both and came out. He clicked at one of them, but then he kept running up to them and then backing into his burrow. I finally figured out that he was grabbing chunks of slimy sand for his engineering efforts. Smart little guy, probably sticks together that way.

 

[Betta132]

They do that with anything they think is useful.
Mine collects shells and rubble to use, and he's built archways around his burrows. More impressively, he's built a tunnel entrance about 4" long out of shells covered in sand. Never heard of them using with the slime, though... Mine gets snail slime on himself sometimes, and he would just get it stuck in the hairs on his claws and he'd spend five minutes rubbing them together to get it off.
Give him a handful of small bits of rubble and shells, put them near his burrow. He'll come out to get those pieces of material. And give him larger flat shells... He'll position them to form the walls of a trench/tunnel that he can use as cover to run around and fetch things.

 

[Coelli]

They do that with anything they think is useful.
Mine collects shells and rubble to use, and he's built archways around his burrows. More impressively, he's built a tunnel entrance about 4" long out of shells covered in sand. Never heard of them using with the slime, though... Mine gets snail slime on himself sometimes, and he would just get it stuck in the hairs on his claws and he'd spend five minutes rubbing them together to get it off.
Give him a handful of small bits of rubble and shells, put them near his burrow. He'll come out to get those pieces of material. And give him larger flat shells... He'll position them to form the walls of a trench/tunnel that he can use as cover to run around and fetch things.

That's really cool! He and the goby were actually hanging out together tonight (after I posted). It was the first time I've seen them do the shrimp/goby thing where the goby keeps an eye out and the shrimp works. They're both living under the same rock, just in different spots with different entrances. I think as the shrimp gets his cave system going better they will stick together more. We bought them together, they were in a cup in the tank at the LFS, but they got separated when we put them in about 3 weeks ago. It was awesome to seem them finally together again.

The sand I got them was Carib Sea's "Bimini Pink" which is fine sand but has lots of bits of crushed shells and rubble in it. The goby seemed to be much more comfortable and outgoing when I added about 5# of it on top of the 3/4" of sugar sand. I still have another 5# and if it seems like the shrimp needs more material I'll sieve the fine stuff out and put the chunky stuff in for him. I think I have some old snail and hermit crab shells I can put in too. I don't want a DSB but do want to make sure the diggers and engineers are happy.

 

[Betta132]

Whenever I have a bunch of stuff- broken shells from beach explorations, pieces of rock rubble, etc- I give it to the pistol. You can see the pile of stuff being gradually reduced down to nothing as the pistol hauls his chosen bits off.
If you can watch the inside of the tunnel, you can see they pick just the right shapes to fit into the gaps they have open. I've seen my pistol break bits of shells off with his claws to make sure they fit just right.

 

[Coelli]

Whenever I have a bunch of stuff- broken shells from beach explorations, pieces of rock rubble, etc- I give it to the pistol. You can see the pile of stuff being gradually reduced down to nothing as the pistol hauls his chosen bits off.
If you can watch the inside of the tunnel, you can see they pick just the right shapes to fit into the gaps they have open. I've seen my pistol break bits of shells off with his claws to make sure they fit just right.

I really wish I could see what he was doing. There was a pile of sugar sand outside his burrow today so I'm guessing he's just pushing it out and probably dragging stuff in to reinforce the walls. Haven't seen him yesterday but caught the goby doing his watchman thing today so he must be busy!

 

[Betta132]

If you give the pistol enough supplies and keep him happy, he'll probably become more bold. Mine has learned that there's nothing dangerous in the tank (only inhabitants are him, his goby, a couple of hermits, and a small yellowtail damsel), and he now comes outside quite often and wanders around to look for things to build with.
Do you have a picture of your pistol? "Red-banded pistol" can mean several species.
I have a large tiger pistol, slightly under 3" long.

 

[Coelli]

Unfortunately I don't, he hasn't been out enough for me to get one (though I did see him run out tonight to grab a piece of shell). He mostly looks like this one:

I'm going to sieve the rest of the sand soon and put the bits down near his burrow. He's definitely been busy, seems like every time I leave for a while and come back something has moved.

 

[Betta132]

Ah, a Randall's pistol. He probably won't get much larger, then.
Some craft stores sell bags of untreated shells... That could work.

 

[Coelli]

Ah, a Randall's pistol. He probably won't get much larger, then.
Some craft stores sell bags of untreated shells... That could work.

I have a plastic cup full of snail shells that came with the tank - they were in the sand and in the back chambers. I kept them thinking I might get hermit crabs at some point, but since that's not going to happen I just crushed a bunch of them with a hammer and put them in near the goby and shrimp's burrows. Haven't seen the shrimp yet but he started clicking madly and the goby already grabbed a piece and brought it inside. Thanks for the idea.

 

[Calappidae]

My first pistol shrimp when I was newer to the hobby lived in a small little desktop tank (fluval 2 gallon)

She had a sandbed, 1 piece of rubble, and an empty snail shell. She put all the sand she dug out and any waste inside the snail shell like a trash can. She disappeared in my old 29 gallon.. never once saw her after I introduced her and when I teared it up I didn't see her anywhere. Whenever she had eggs she would be a dark blue, and after they hatch become a pale green. Gave me a hard time to id because of this but I was finally able to confirm she was Alpheus euphrosyne.

Currently I still have my tiger and yellow watchman goby in my 125 gallon.

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Actually I was upset I stopped recording as litteraly after I stopped he was close range shooting the plate coral repeatedly.. I thought he was done when he went back in.

 

[Betta132]

Hmm, the goby is collecting stuff? Cool. I've heard of them doing that, but I haven't seen it. It seems to be mostly a yellow watchman thing. Now, I've seen my goby grabbing food for the shrimp...
A warning; my pistol does NOT like macroalgae. He'll tear it up if he can, and then he shovels the bits out the back of his burrow.
Have you had a chance to see how the goby and shrimp communicate with each other? It's subtle, but it's there if you know what to look for.

 

[Coelli]

Hmm, the goby is collecting stuff? Cool. I've heard of them doing that, but I haven't seen it. It seems to be mostly a yellow watchman thing. Now, I've seen my goby grabbing food for the shrimp...
A warning; my pistol does NOT like macroalgae. He'll tear it up if he can, and then he shovels the bits out the back of his burrow.
Have you had a chance to see how the goby and shrimp communicate with each other? It's subtle, but it's there if you know what to look for.

We haven't seen them together much. For the most part the pistol stays under the rock. He's been coming out more lately though, so maybe... I have seen the goby use his tail when the shrimp was around like he was warning him.