Pistol Shrimp

[guitarest]

So I was cruising the edge of the water line last night and came across a different looking shrimp. At first I thought it may have been a small lobster or a shrimp with a deformed claw. Looked it up on line and its called a Pistol Shrimp; man this guy totally dug up my 10 gal tank and has made it difficult for his other tank mates. I am debating about binging him back to the beach tonight and letting him go. You can hear him crack his claw across the room and according to urban legend they can crack our tanks. Will try to get pictures later...

[Scott Allen]

So I was cruising the edge of the water line last night and came across a different looking shrimp. At first I thought it may have been a small lobster or a shrimp with a deformed claw. Looked it up on line and its called a Pistol Shrimp; man this guy totally dug up my 10 gal tank and has made it difficult for his other tank mates. I am debating about binging him back to the beach tonight and letting him go. You can hear him crack his claw across the room and according to urban legend they can crack our tanks. Will try to get pictures later...

Nah, a pistol shrimp can't, a peacock mantis on the other hand can but it's extremely rare and takes a very large specimen... Pistols crack there claws to produce a sonic wave that they use to disorient and haze there prey. Very cool creatures. Get him a watchman goby and they will probably dig a burrow and stay together. Coolest symbiotic relationship imo.

After he gets is burrow settled, he should calm down and quit making such a mess. That's is a particularly pretty one!

[guitarest]

I took all the fish (Blemmies and Spotted Gobi's) out of the tank until he chills out. All thats left in the tank with him is a small rock crab; a few skillet fish and maybe a dozen small brown shrimp. I put in a new filter two days ago; had to remove it today due to all the sand this guy is kicking up and I still can hear him pop that claw; although not as often since removing the Gobi and Blemmies. The Pistol shrimp has dug up the entire back left side of the tank to where there is no sand left and he does have a small tunnel under a large rock formation. He is very agile also; doing back flips and somersaults moving all over the place. During my search last night I also found out these guys sell for 15.00 each on some websites. Its about time I caught something locally worth something; lol.

Went out tonight trying to find a few more tank mates and the wind was just too much and it made seeing in the shallow waters very difficult and kicked up loads of loose mud. Something else I saw tonight that really has me upset is someone did rather well fishing since they cleaned at least 10 speckled trout and threw their remaining bodies in the water and they smelled quite ripe. I also caught a few big blue crabs just to do it and released them after I caught them; they felt some what heavy and had been munching on those speckled trout remains.

[drhuddleston1s]

Well if you decide to keep it a watchman or other shrimp gobies make good pairs. The pistol shrimp cant see very well and the gobies will keep watch and guide it around the tank. My tiger pistol and yellow watchman are one of my favorite things to watch in my tank.

[acbaro]

Can you keep a pistol with a cleaner in the tank? And would a 1-2" sand bed work out for the pistol goby pair?

[drhuddleston1s]

I have a coral banded and a fire cleaner shrimp in my 30g with the pistol shrip. They do just fine. My sand bed is 1"-1.5"

[acbaro]

What's the difference between a regular cleaner and fire cleaner? And all the shrimp will get along then as long as they have plenty of rock work to climb around?

[guitarest]

Well its been a few days and this guy has already clogged one new filter with sand and I had to clean out the impeller also; he is still busy kicking up sand still. The only difference is since I removed the local Gobi's I caught on the beach he isn't firing as often; I am going to release him back into the wild tomorrow. He turned a crystal clean 10 gal tank with only him and about a dozen small brown shrimp into a very cloudy tank with all the sand partials floating around. He is cool but always hiding and digging. I have coral; shells and pvc piping in the tank all resting on the sand which is from 1/2 to a inch deep depending on the location in the small tank.

If anyone wants him before I let him go; shoot me a PM or email; he will be gone around noon on Thursday (tomorrow).

Jocko

[drhuddleston1s]

its a type of cleaner shrimp.

http://www.thatpetplace.com/Lysmata-deb ... a_7c208595

other cleaner shrimp look like:

http://www.petco.com/product/101448/Sca ... erralID=NA

[guitarest]

Well Mr Pistol must have internet access because he totally cleaned up his act these last 12 or so hours. His digging up the sand has stopped and even more important he has started eating the Tetra Crisps fish food and loves it. My brown shrimp and small fin walkers love the food and today was the first day I observed him eating the food. He ate at least 3 disks or flakes of the food himself. This weekend I am going to put a local gobi back in the tank to see if they can get a working relationship going.

Oh I love it when my tanks are clean and I can actually see the critters without all the sandy residue all over in the water. OH well its almost 12:00 mid-night heading back to the beach to hopefully catch another Sea Robin....