Okay so I'll start from the beginning...

-2nd fish I wanted, a yasha. Bought the pistol threw it in. Bought the yasha, got it before my LFS floated in the tank, it died

-Next, got a yellow watchman. 2 weeks and it didn't pair up with the pistol. It was turning colors every day, it was extremely stressed, and super ugly. Returned it.

-Ordered me a pistol + yasha in a group buy. Got the pistol, no yasha. Pistol died in baggy.

-Sent me another pistol... still no yasha. The pistol is fine, but no 2 FRONT FREAKING CLAWS, including its pistol. So I put it in a cup with sand, waiting for the yasha they are STILL supposed to send me

-Supplier does not want to ship us a yasha. Supplier sucks at life. So we find a randall's watchman goby. Very active, very pretty, very healthy, so we pick it up. This fish:
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_di...&pcatid=197

-So we acclimate the goby, put it in the cup, and it chills in there with the pistol. The pistol is happy and starts digging like crazy.

-I am about to go to bed, I look at the goby, and the PISTOL IS IN IT'S MOUTH!!!!

WHAT IS WRONG??!

Could it be that the pistol doesn't have it's claw?

The pistol was about 3/4 an inch long and the goby was about 2 inches...

I have the goby in a baggy waiting to be returned, luckily I saved the pistol. Which was already half mutilated.

ARRGHH!!

Maybe the gobies didn't recognize the pistol was trying to pair with it. I've seen pictures of a yellow watchman with a hermit in its mouth. I had a Randall's shrimp goby, but it was paired with a tiger pistol (larger than a randall's). I think you may want to get a pair from somewhere online like liveaquaria. I know they have pairs of shrimp and gobies (sometimes with one of them having a mate) in the divers den section.

Bump... come on guys!!



Huh. That sucks, don't randall's gobies pair with randall's pistol shrimp though? Could the missing claw have contributed to it?

You can't just throw two compatible things together and expect it to always work...example American divorce rate is like what 75%. Just view your latest dissapointment as a divorce.

Keep trying and be patient(although I'd be pissed at your LFS and attempt another after the reutrn) and you'll finally get a pair.

edit-spelling

LMAO! Thanks FBC, that's what I needed. I guess I'll try again. The pistol was so happy though, and the goby just freakin ate it. Lol... How long is it going to take for the pistol's claw to grow back?

• No problem man glad I could help.
• yeah I've been in relationships like that before
• and It should grow back within a molt or two.

good luck

Yea they do, I have a full grown Randall's Goby paired with a 1/2 inch Randalls Pistol Shrimp and the shrimp's holes are barely big enough for the goby.

Thanks a bunch. I'll just keep feeding the pistol, but I think it's too paralyzed to dig.



That's really good to know. I'm probably going to get a yasha now though because the Randall's goby doesn't look very pretty anymore.

Do what you want, just know that the Randalls is literally the opposite of a Yasha, my Randalls is almost never hiding, but my previous Yashas and Hi-Fin Red Banded Gobies would hide out almost every other day.

i read this thread and was like "holy chit"

What do you mean you put them in a cup?

cup = steel cage death match? putting two things in a cup sounds like a very bad idea. things should always be around the same size in your tank or things get eaten. the shrimp without his claws had no way to defend himself either. i've heard its really hard to get a pistol and goby to pair up. thats why the sold pairs are so expensive.

hows the shrimp doing btw?

My fish store does it all the time. But it was with a pistol and yasha. The shrimp has molted twice already and has it's claws back, although it can't snap it yet. I had it in the cup, but last night it somehow vanished. I thought it magically deteriorated but I saw it in the back of the tank!