Pistol Shrimp and "Sugar" Sand

[zoohoot]

This may be a stupid question, but will a pistol shrimp have a hard time creating his burrow/cave in sugar-sized sand?

 

[LeslieH]

Yes. In nature they prefer mixed sand/gravel habitats. Sand alone doesn't provide enough stability and the burrows will kept caving in. Bits of rubble & rock are used to provide structure & support, much like beams in a mine.

 

[zoohoot]

Thank you, Leslie. So if I want to house a pistol shrimp, should I add some gravel to my shallow sand bed, or will the shrimp find bits of rubble on his own?

 

[LeslieH]

I would but that's theoretical since I don't keep tanks. Hopefully some of the good folks here who have kept pistols can give you advice based on real experience. )

 

[a.stebel]

I have a pistol /yellow watchman goby pair in sugar fine sand. They have not had any problems burrowing all over the tank. They have never caused any rocks to shift. It could be because when I aquascaped I settled the rocks down in the sand a bit.

They do make very large mounds of sand, much larger then other pistols I have seen in crushed coral sand beds.

 

[zoohoot]

That is great info. Thanks stebel.

 

[mndfreeze]

My pistol is in pretty fine grained stuff, but I have a DSB and almost my entire tank is rock with only a tiny bit of sand around the edges and a small sand island in the corner. The pistol is def. making a big pile of sand mess as he digs out under the rocks, but he and his goby buddy seem content with using the rock in conjunction with the sand as opposed to making roundish hole/tunnel directly into the sand.

If you dont have a deep sand bed then you really should add some rougher sand and tiny rubble likes stuff fo them to use.