Invisible Pistol Shrimp...

lkgrenegade22

lkgrenegade22

Member
Well I've come to the conclusion I have a small pistol shrimp in my tank. With the amount of live rock I have it would have been pretty easy for him to welcome himself to the tank. Well over a month ago when I was pulling out and moving the rock around to catch all my fish to do a hypo treatment I saw what I was 99% positive was a small shrimp, about 1" long. Due to his quickness, burrowing ability and the sand cloud from stirring up the bottom I never was able to find him again or get a really good look at him. Well for the past week at night I have heard rather loud clicking sounds coming from the tank so I'm pretty sure I've got a pistol.
So my question is, with this being a hitchiker pistol do you think he will cause any problems? I have a pink/blue spotted shrimp goby but he has not paired up with him. I'm also wondering just how big this thing is gonna get...
 
S

shrimpy brains

Guest
The only potential problem I know of is that, if your base live rock is not touching the bottom of tank, they could burrow under and cause your rock to fall. Other than that, they are fantastic.
I like to watch mine, running in and out of their little burrows.
They actually have a lot of interesting antics, if your lucky enough to catch them out of their holes. I also enjoy the occasional "pistol" sound. I have two and two prawn gobies. Got them that way on purpose. The only problem is that the 2 prawn gobies and 1 tiger share a burrow and the other tiger just lives by himself.
I did'nt think it would work that way. Feel bad for the lonely tiger.
 
S

shrimpy brains

Guest
Oh. supposedly, they only get around 2 inches. I think mine are larger than that, but mabe thats because they keep thier arms in front like a lobster making them look bigger.
 
S

shrimpy brains

Guest
I just looked it up again cuz the curiosity was getting to me. Just thought I'd mention that you might want to try to get a better id on this shrimp.
Reason being, I beleive the mantis shrimp also makes a clicking sound. This shrimp can be very destructive to fish and inverts and can also break the glass in smaller aquariums.
Hopefully, it is a tiger, but thought I would mention it.
 
N

nihoa

Guest
we have a smaller tank, 33 gallon, and had a pistol sneak in on some live rock. the first night we put the live rock in we heard clicking and popping coming from the tank and there was our cleaner shrimp dead. i have read lots of accounts where people love pistols and they arent a problem and other accounts where they may be competitive with other shrimp (or certain species) in smaller tanks. like anything in this hobby, there are strong opinions coming from the different camps and i dont mean to dredge up a big dumb debate but we are quite convinced the pistol killed our cleaner. the pistol is now residing back at the pet shop where we purchased the live rock.
 
lkgrenegade22

lkgrenegade22

Member
Originally Posted by gmann1139
http:///forum/post/2910104
Yeah, clicking noises and constant hiding usually mean mantis.
Any other inhabitants in the tank go missing?
Ok guys thanks for bumping my thread. You've got me worrying again because it might be a mantis. I couldn't get a good ID on the thing last time I moving rocks. I was assuming only pistols made that sound. I have had 2 neon gobies, 1 small diamond goby, 1 jawfish and 1 engineer goby go missing since I have had the tank setup. All bottom dwelling fish. I chalked them up too the extremely large and mean hermits I had in the tank after I watched them kill another fish. I do have a 4" shrimp goby and I was thinking if it was a pistol why wasn't he hanging out with him...It would be a disaster to try and catch a mantis on the tank with as much LR as I have.
 
nwdyr

nwdyr

Active Member
I believe there is a Diff. in the number of "clicks" I also have a pistol shrimp that came in on some rock. I only saw him 1 time , he was about 1/2 inch long but I still here him often. The click is not "rapid" and almost never more then 3 clicks at a time . I think that's the diff. between pistol and Mantis...or at least I hope
 
lkgrenegade22

lkgrenegade22

Member
Originally Posted by nwdyr
http:///forum/post/2913212
I believe there is a Diff. in the number of "clicks" I also have a pistol shrimp that came in on some rock. I only saw him 1 time , he was about 1/2 inch long but I still here him often. The click is not "rapid" and almost never more then 3 clicks at a time . I think that's the diff. between pistol and Mantis...or at least I hope

So what does a mantis clicking sound like? The one I have makes intermittent clicking sounds...They are never rapid fire or anything.
 
lkgrenegade22

lkgrenegade22

Member
I'm just thinking I watch my tank all the time and have never seen this shrimp other than I was moving rocks...So what are the chances of him actually coming out and going in a trap?
 
chaoticdamsel

chaoticdamsel

Member
Originally Posted by LKGRenegade22
http:///forum/post/2913210
I knew about the bottle trap but I question it's effectiveness. Especially if I glue the inverted top to it. I used one awhile back trying to catch a few fish and caught everything I was trying NOT to catch. If the top is glued in and you get an unwanted fish you are going to have a hard time getting him out.
You don't have to glue the top in. Just push it inside enough that it wedges itself in. If you do it this way, all you have to do if you catch the wrong fish is pull out the top, release the fish then reset the trap and try again. I used the bottle trap (non-glued) several times with great results to capture problem fish.
 
lkgrenegade22

lkgrenegade22

Member
Originally Posted by ChaoticDamsel
http:///forum/post/2913287
You don't have to glue the top in. Just push it inside enough that it wedges itself in. If you do it this way, all you have to do if you catch the wrong fish is pull out the top, release the fish then reset the trap and try again. I used the bottle trap (non-glued) several times with great results to capture problem fish.
Yeah I didn't have mine glued the 1st time I used it. I kept catching my clown goby and my cleaner wrasse.
 
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