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Tiger pistol + Yellow watchman. Should I add more sand?


AkOndray

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So I'm in a slight predicament. I have a 15 gallon waterbox with 1/2" substrate. I had originally planned on waiting and getting a smaller pistol shrimp, but someone in the area had a tiger and a yellow watchman that were already paired and free to a good home but had to go right away.

 

I just introduced them to the tank and they're off in a corner hunkered down with the tiger digging away.

 

I'm wondering if I should add more sand or just wait and see how they do. He's hitting the bottom quickly in the corner and I feel bad since they can't dig far enough down to feel safe.  I'm hoping once he digs near the rocks he'll have some more room to dig but I still feel like I might need to get up to at least an inch in depth.

 

Thoughts?

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15 minutes ago, AkOndray said:

So I'm in a slight predicament. I have a 15 gallon waterbox with 1/2" substrate. I had originally planned on waiting and getting a smaller pistol shrimp, but someone in the area had a tiger and a yellow watchman that were already paired and free to a good home but had to go right away.

 

I just introduced them to the tank and they're off in a corner hunkered down with the tiger digging away.

 

I'm wondering if I should add more sand or just wait and see how they do. He's hitting the bottom quickly in the corner and I feel bad since they can't dig far enough down to feel safe.  I'm hoping once he digs near the rocks he'll have some more room to dig but I still feel like I might need to get up to at least an inch in depth.

 

Thoughts?

1/2 inch seems little for a pistol shrimp. 

 

You could add more but make sure you wash it well before adding it.

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MainelyReefer

Killer deal to find a free pair!  I would add to 1”, not sure what kind of sand you used but I find the blends with some larger pieces are preferred by my pistols as they use the larger pieces to build at the entrance of their burrow then back fill with fine sands.  If you have fine sand a little crushed coral thrown near the burrow entrance once established would suffice.  Also many reefers rinse their sand thoroughly and swear by it, I never do though and most live sands say not to right on the bag,  I just put the bag near the bottom and pour it out slowly this helps alleviate clouding.

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2 hours ago, Clown79 said:

1/2 inch seems little for a pistol shrimp. 

 

You could add more but make sure you wash it well before adding it.

 

1 hour ago, GraniteReefer said:

Killer deal to find a free pair!  I would add to 1”, not sure what kind of sand you used but I find the blends with some larger pieces are preferred by my pistols as they use the larger pieces to build at the entrance of their burrow then back fill with fine sands.  If you have fine sand a little crushed coral thrown near the burrow entrance once established would suffice.  Also many reefers rinse their sand thoroughly and swear by it, I never do though and most live sands say not to right on the bag,  I just put the bag near the bottom and pour it out slowly this helps alleviate clouding.

 

 

Thanks for the advice. I still have some left overs from the original bag of figi pink live sand. The left overs have been sitting in a bucket for a while so I'm thinking I probably should rinse it out well before adding that to the tank. Does that sound right? 

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  • 3 weeks later...

I have a pair, my sand is only 1 and a half inches at the deepest spots, 80% of my tank probably only has 1/2 inch, had them over a year now no problems,as long as they have a rock to get unepder the shrimp will build up around the rock put lots of little stones and broken corals next to it home and watch it do some bricklaying, very cool to watch mine has basically built a house around it’s rock 

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1 hour ago, St3 said:

I have a pair, my sand is only 1 and a half inches at the deepest spots, 80% of my tank probably only has 1/2 inch, had them over a year now no problems,as long as they have a rock to get unepder the shrimp will build up around the rock put lots of little stones and broken corals next to it home and watch it do some bricklaying, very cool to watch mine has basically built a house around it’s rock 

That's exactly what mine's done. I ended up giving them a day to see how they'd do with less sand and within 8 hours or so they had piled up a lot of the sand around their rock of choice and made a safe place to hide. In the following weeks they've grabbed anything and everything to add to the construction, including live snails that they snagged and flipped upside down and even a frag that fell off the back glass where I had glued it. 

 

Very entertaining although they've made it clear I can't keep anything on or near the sand unless I want them to have it 😛

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