pistol shrimp nano

[weaselslucks]

I have a wonderful pistol shrimp in my 40 gallon. He is doing well but I usually never see him, and he cant build a propper den with my very fine sand. I was at a LFS that had the same shrimp paired with a gobie in their LR tank wich has a very deep sand bed made up of coral bits and sand. The shrip made his home close ot the front glass so that you can see his tunnels and hes always out with the goby. ok now for my question. I i set up say a 10 gallon and make a deep sand bed could i do esentually the same thing with the shrimp or would the tank just go anerobic and posion my $40 shrimp? would a 20 long or a 29 be a better?

 

[Javeo]

You should be fine, you dont need a very deep sandbed, maybe 2" of sugarfine sand mixed with bits of coral gravel and rubble, and bits of shell. try to find a pair of small gobies to keep with your shrimp, this will make it more interesting as the gobies may spawn for you.
I have a yasha haze goby with a randels shrimp and a yellow watchman goby with a yellow shrimp. I have a 2" sugerfine sand bed, the shrimps use bits of rock and shells to build and hold up their tunnels.

 

[AnneRiceBowl]

I am planning the same basic tank--a 10 gallon. How many goby/shrimp "groups" for a 10 gallon?

 

[Javeo]

If you can get them, a pair of gobies and a pair of shrimp. All 4 will live together. I wouldn't try seperate pairs in such a small tank.

 

[AnneRiceBowl]

So, 2 gobies and 2 shrimp in the 10 gallon? I just want to be clear.

 

[Javeo]

Yes, but as long as they are a pair, you might get terratorial aggression if you put two strange gobies in a small tank like that.

 

[RedEyeElf]

I buried a small glass vial in my sand near where mine used to dig, and he made a home in it for afew weeks, untill he met his demise...damn murderous tang...

 

[AnneRiceBowl]

Thank you Javeo for the info! I am still setting up the tank (it's cycling now), and I am still searching for pairs in the meantime.

 

[chelskisw6]

you can also use a small piece of PVC pipe and place that somewhere in the front of the tank so that he will make his hole up front. usually when you first put them in, they will go to the back of the tank, but after a while, they realize where the food is coming from and will come up front.
weaselslucks - which LFS do you go to?

 

[dc]

I have a hi fin and a tiger pistol in a 10. They go from one side of the tank to the other. I think if I ever actually set up a tank for one, I'd do the rock first, making sure I had tunnels everywhere, and then put the sand on top.

 

[teetimefun]

Do you guys spot feed your pistol shrimp?

 

[matter1331]

my goby is super protective of my pistol, so what I usually do is turn off all of the pumps and put a little bit of food right in front of the cave. I'm pretty sure my goby also feeds the pistol, he'll take a peice of food, go into the cave and come right back out, so I think that's what's going on.