Signs of Pistol Shrimp. Alive? Dead?

[e_reef]

I recently started a BC14. It finished cycling about 2 1/2 months ago. About 2 weeks after the cycle started I purchased online a Randall's Pistol Shrimp and a Randall's Prawn Goby(I love the fact that they both are A. randalli :lmao to keep off in a quarantine while the cycle completed. The little goby didn't look the best when he came in. He looked like he started to get a little better after first settling into the QT, but then slowly went downhill and died within 48 hours of arrival. The shrimp on the other hand did perfectly fine. I moved him to a new QT for the remainder of the cycle and a few weeks beyond what I declared as the end of the cycle. At that point I placed him in my display tank.

The first week or so, I didn't see him at all. I'd turn off my powerheads/pump and would target feed around a few areas of the tank that looked like decent places for a little shrimp to hide and would let it sit awhile before turning on the flow. The second week, I finally caught him coming out to eat. In that same area, I noticed a few place where it looked like he had slightly started to excavate by the rock(the rock sits on the glass so it won't shift). The last I saw him was about a week after that. I have yet to see him or any signs of him in about a month - month and a half.

The spots where it looks like he was starting to excavate don't change any(that is, other than when the lone Nasarrius wrecks the area wiping out my target feeding effort.) I have returned to attempting to kind of scatter my feedings in hopes that I will lure him out again if he moved, but have yet to have any luck. When I turn everything back on, all the placed food is swept away, so I know he isn't getting anything to eat.

Any thoughts on if he's alive or dead? What kind of signs should I look for other than the obvious excavation?

 

[mpy18]

I read a little bit of your post but stopped before I finished it, without knowing for sure I'm going to say he still alive. Mine disappeared as soon as I put them in the tank and I never seen him for weeks. One day I found him in my overflow filter so I scooped them up and put them back at the moment my little Gobi is now in the overflow maybe they're getting attacked in the main tank but they're in there

 

[ThRoewer]

I had 4 of them in my 18" cube - a pair and 2 single males. I only saw the pair because it was living with my high fin goby pair and one of the singles because its burrow was close to the front. When I broke down the tank to replace it with a 40B I found all 4 of them. Since the new tank has a lot more ground surface I decided to add a few more. A LFS had 6 and gave me a great deal when I asked for all of them. So now I have 10 in this tank. Next thing to come is adding a second goby pair - this time a pair of yashas.
This will work only with randalli shrimp - of tigers or similar large pistol shrimp you can only have one pair.

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[Arsenal09]

I had 4 of them in my 18" cube - a pair and 2 single males. I only saw the pair because it was living with my high fin goby pair and one of the singles because its burrow was close to the front. When I broke down the tank to replace it with a 40B I found all 4 of them. Since the new tank has a lot more ground surface I decided to add a few more. A LFS had 6 and gave me a great deal when I asked for all of them. So now I have 10 in this tank. Next thing to come is adding a second goby pair - this time a pair of yashas.
This will work only with randalli shrimp - of tigers or similar large pistol shrimp you can only have one pair.

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They all get along in the tank? Seems likes there would be some fights over territory. I did have a green pistol shrimp in my 20 gallon long but i'm actually facing the same dilemma. Haven't seen him in a few weeks, he'd usually come out when i added some brine shrimp to the tank but hasn't lately. I did enjoy having him in my tank, it was interesting to see how much sand he'd move around.

 

[ThRoewer]

I wanted a couple of pairs in the tank and was too lazy to sex them, so I left it to statistics. I can check them from the bottom and there are plenty of isolated burrows. So I'm pretty sure most are still alive.
If there were any losses then those were rather due to the 2 giganteas than to fights among each other.
Right now I'm thinking about adding another batch to my 100 gallon tank. The gigantea in that tank is high above the ground in the rocks and not a threat to bottom dwellers.

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