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Pistol Shrimp


caja

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I finally got my sally lightfoot crab out of my tank, so now I'm ready for a shrimp. I know some of you mentioned a pistol shrimp to hang around with my watchman goby. My question is, since I've had the goby for a couple of weeks, will a newly introduced pistol pair up with the goby? I know you can buy the goby/shrimp combo, but how easily do they pair up if introduced separately?

 

Thanks!

Adrienne

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In my experience, they'll either pair up over the course of the day, or they'll beat the living snot out of each other. I've seen them go both ways. I have a pair living in a 2 gal. Eclipse Explorer, and they've been hanging out happily for nearly a year and a half now. I can't believe how stable it is, being that the tank is nothing but sand (4"), and a pound or so of rock. No heater, no light, minimum water changes. And to top it off, the tank is growing frickin' green coraline algae! It's survived two different moves, one of which was eight hours in a car, and they're still happy.

 

I guess my point to all that is that if you find a pair that match up, they'll be good to go for life. They're a great addition to the tank. Smart move on ridding the tank of the Sally Lightfoot. They're nasty SOBs.

 

Later.

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Just curious, but do crabs and shrimps not get along? Or is this just specific to the Sally lightfoot? I ask this because I currently have an Emerald Crab, and will be getting a pistol and peppermint shrimp. Am I going to have to remove the Emerald crab?

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My pistol is a little territorial, but I also think that he does this because he wonders if something that wanders by the hole is food. That shrimp is kind of a pig when it comes to things like that. I put in a couple of margarita snails on Sunday to keep the diatoms in check, and one happened to crawl by the hole, and he came charging out and picked it up! He quickly realized that the snail wasn't food, so he carted him across the tank and set him down. It was pretty funny to watch.

 

Later.

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I have seen a full grow pistol take on a large hermit crab. the crab came to close so the shrimp grabed it by the claw and twisted it arm as a lever to flip it over. the shrimp wasnt holding back but It didnt have the power to do any damage to the crab. once the shrimp let go the crab when running.

 

well I dont think that the shrimp would harm the crabs but the will be moved on with force. so I wouldn't worry about it.

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technoshaman

My pistol caught and ate at least one and possibley 2 neon gobies (he was hanging around where they sleep and I came down to look and he had one dead munching away) so caution advised keeping them with small fish. Mine is pretty big about 3"+ though. I got him to try and pair up with my yellow watchmen and he just tried to beat the crap out of them instead of shacking up.

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Yeah, that's what I was afraid of Techno. The pistol that was for sale at the LFS was bigger than my watchman so I decided I better not even attemp it. For now I have a pep. shrimp, but he's going to be outta there soon. He ate all the aiptasia so I want him out before he eats my polyps. Anyone know anything about fire shrimp?

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