Pistol shrimp driving me crazy

[goosey]

Set up my 20g tank about a year ago and a pistol shrimp came with the LR -- I hear the snapping. I saw him once for a second about 6 months ago and he was about an 3/4 inch long and grey colored, it was not a mantis.

He was behaving (or maybe too small to do much damage)...up until recently.

Within the last month someone (I'm guessing its him) has eaten my 2 peppermint shrimp, all my hermit crabs, my small cerith snails and now my recently purchased yellow clown goby. The YCG is the last straw. The only survivor to all this is my firefish who I've had for a year and I think is too big.

I've tried to trap him but to no avail. Short of taking all my larger pieces of LR out because I don't know where he's hiding, and basically killing them with freshwater to flush him out, I'm out of ideas. I also don't want to have to start over curing LR. I'd appreciate any other suggestions to try before I resort to this.

Btw, I don't know what kind he is other than the description above but roughly how big can these get?

 

[dagreatbadfinger]

oh man i know EXACTLY where your comming from. I had one up until a week ago until i got fed up. mine was about 2" and a beauty - but like yours i barley ever saw him. i was pretty much tired of him stealing my coral sitting on my sand and running away with it. one time i played a game of tug-a-war with him for a piece of coral! and he almost won!

I would say in a tank that small (Mine was in my red sea max) its not enough space to keep him with out some kinda damage - catch him and get rid of him i say

 

[goosey]

How did you get rid of him?

2"? That is what I'm afraid of.

 

[skimmerman100]

dude with pipe cleaners tied together and find perfect round holes in the LR and poke it threw, thier holes are very round so ull know its the pistol shrimp there. i had the same problem and he was a white and blue and red pistol. as soon as i got him i bought a watchman, and had them in a holding tank until they paired and had about 3 inches of sand bed when they began boroing for about 2 months then i put them back into my display and now they are very well behaved. i still hear the snapping noise at times but only when the my coral beauty goes near their den or at night when he is making a hole in the rock, i usually find alot of LR crumbs outside their home. but they arent touching my coral any more so i dont care much they are paired and the goby knows right from wrong im sure he domesticated the wild animal, i call them fred and earl the best friends of the sea.

 

[aznt1217]

Try a diy trap at night. The 2 litter coke bottle and put a piece of food in there.

If that doesn't work see where he comes from and use a net

 

[goosey]

Thanks for the tips. So I tried the coke bottle thing using the small glass bottle with a plastic wrap slit in the opening baited with some shrimp and all I caught was bristle worms--did this for 4 nights.

Maybe I'll just have to keep at it until he shows up in the bottle.

So all those pinky sized round bore holes in my live rock are made by the shrimp or they were they already there and he just uses those? When I bought the rocks they had lots of those holes and I figured they'd be good hiding spots for stuff.

And if I catch this little butcher, he can be rehabilitated by a shrimp goby or are there some shrimp that are just natural born killers that can't be rehab'd?

 

[skimmerman100]

if u want u can look at my tank, i got a tiger type of pistol with my rock, they make wholes and he can but u need patience, if u put him in an empty aquarium with a sand bed u may be able to domesticate him with a goby, i dont know if it works with every wild pistol but it worked with mine.at night with a flashlight look threw every hole, not pointing the light directly into the hole u will see him sticking out, then u have found his home, with pipe cleaner from the art store, u know those little fuzzy bendable sticks that come in color, stick them threw the back wholes, the front whole that u saw him threw is where he will come out from,push the pipe cleaners as deep as possible he will com out, and do this in a bare tank with just water and sand so he will swim to the bottom, thats how i got mine out

 

[dagreatbadfinger]

i honestly had him paired with an orange spotted goby - imo a tank of my size was just to small for mine hence why i got rid of them. they have tons of entrances for their burrow which was kinda cool - when i saw them that is

i got lucky i guess catching him. i just pulled up the rock and netted him. Not to much damage or disturbance to the tank. My goby looks alittle lonely now but he seems ok.

 

[JHOV2324]

I had a pistol shrimp that terrorized my tank for about 2 years.....after i got fed up with it i introduced it to my dear pal Domboski who had a stone fish...lets just say revenge is sweet.. MUWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA......

 

[dagreatbadfinger]

lol stone fish FTW

 

[knugenx]

I would love to get that stonefish...does it eat lobster?

 

[skimmerman100]

I had a pistol shrimp that terrorized my tank for about 2 years.....after i got fed up with it i introduced it to my dear pal Domboski who had a stone fish...lets just say revenge is sweet.. MUWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA......

:lol2:

 

[skimmerman100]

or that but he will eat pistol, peppermints, coralbanded, gobies, neon gobies, blennies, and anything that fits in his mouth

 

[4Fish]

I have a pistol shrimp in my 125 reef for months without problems. To be clear, are you guys referring to the shrimps that are often sold in pairs with watchmen gobies, mine is extremely small, almost transulent, and I suppose blind. I bought the pair at Fishtown about 6 months ago.