Candy Striped Pistol Shrimp Won't Pair

[Justin_Luke]

Hi all! A few weeks back I picked up a spot tail blenny from my lfs and it came in a rock that was its home. A couple days later I spotted a candy striped pistol shrimp in my tank when I had the lights turned off. It obviously hitch hiked in on the piece of rock that the blenny lived in. I was very excited because i also have a yellow watchman goby in my tank, which i hear these specific shrimp pair very well with. My tank is only 5.1 gallons so i figured that they would pair up but they never did. I resorted to tearing my rock apart and catching the shrimp in order to quarantine the shrimp and goby together in hope of getting them to pair. After keeping the shrimp and goby in a very small confined space for over 2 hours I added them back to the tank only to have them go their separate ways! its been 2 weeks since that happened and i haven't seen the shrimp since, i know he's alive though because i can hear him snapping away every single day. Is there any way to get these two to pair? At the very least is there any way to get my pistol shrimp to come out in the open? Thanks all!

[reefernanoman]

My candy pistol shrimp and YWMG paired up only like a day after adding them to my previous tank which was about 7.5 gallons. Every animal is different thought. Even when I moved them from one tank to another they pair right up again. It's a shame that yours don't pair up. Maybe the blenny has something to do with your issue? Have you tried taking him out of your tank? See if that helps.

Candy pistol shrimp will not come out at all unless they are paired up with a fish.