We are sharing this sad news in case it helps anyone avoid our mistake.
We have a 125 gallon well established mixed reef tank. It’s been stable for a long time now so recently we decided to try adding a sand sifting goby. We do have a yellow watchman pistol shrimp pair, and after reading other posts we decided to risk it. The system is well established and there are lots of rocks to house them.
So we finally introduced the sand sifter to the system two days ago. Initially it dug out a small cave and stayed there. We were not concerned because other fish have taken a few days to get comfortable when being introduced.
Unfortunately, we found the new goby wounded this morning and it has died. It looked like his face was dark and pinched.
The best we can figure out is that the pistol shrimp (we forgot that the shrimp has a “pistol” claw) May have defended their burrow.
In any case, we will not try this again.
We have a 125 gallon well established mixed reef tank. It’s been stable for a long time now so recently we decided to try adding a sand sifting goby. We do have a yellow watchman pistol shrimp pair, and after reading other posts we decided to risk it. The system is well established and there are lots of rocks to house them.
So we finally introduced the sand sifter to the system two days ago. Initially it dug out a small cave and stayed there. We were not concerned because other fish have taken a few days to get comfortable when being introduced.
Unfortunately, we found the new goby wounded this morning and it has died. It looked like his face was dark and pinched.
The best we can figure out is that the pistol shrimp (we forgot that the shrimp has a “pistol” claw) May have defended their burrow.
In any case, we will not try this again.
