Fish Compatability

[Wendyr]

Hello! I have a Falco Hawkfish and would like to get a Goby/Pistol Shrimp pair. I'm thinking Yasha Goby and Randal Pistol Shrimp. I'm worried about the shrimp and hawk. I have a 130 gal. Anyone have this successfully?

 

[lion king]

The falco can get pretty aggressive, I would not trust them with that combo. Maybe with a beefier combo including a tiger pistol and a larger goby, something like a watchman or similar. In your size tank, the shrimp may find safety, but in turn you will likely never see it.

 

[Wendyr]

In my old 30 gal I had a diamond goby. Would he pair with a tiger pistol, do you think?

 

[i cant think]

In my old 30 gal I had a diamond goby. Would he pair with a tiger pistol, do you think?

Diamond Go ones are of the Genus Valenciennea, if you’re interested then I have an article on these vs the true shrimp goby genera but in short;
Valenciennea and any other Sand Sifting genus of gobies do not pair with Shrimp of the Alpheus genus.

 

[Wendyr]

Well, thanks. Don't want to waste your time.

 

[i cant think]

Well, thanks. Don't want to waste your time.

No worries :)
I assume you’re referring to me with wasting time, if so then you aren’t - I spend pretty much all day on here when I’m not busy.

Looking at the size of your tank you should get away with a pistol shrimp however be incredibly cautious and I recommend you get a larger pistol (Alpheus bellulus is the larger of the two common pistol shrimp and attains a size of 2 inches). I have 6 shrimp in total and although none of my 20ish fish are hawkfish, I do have 10 wrasses (4 in my SPS Reef and 6 in my Mixed Reef).
Here’s what I would do;
If you want a shrimp then the Indonesian cleaners (Lysmata amboinensis) are the best as my current one is currently just pushing 3 inches if not 3.5. My second one that passed earlier was just under 3 inches as well - both can be seen in this older photo as 1.5-2 inch specimens.

Alpheus Bellulus is just as pretty as Alpheus randalli but in a different way - I have both although I’ve never seen my bellulus compared to how often I’ve seen my randalli. The Bellulus as I said will get much larger than randalli will, and you should be alright with a bellulus as if they settle without being scouted out (I feel like my Bellulus was scouted by my two Halichoeres wrasses) then they can grow to rather large sizes. The top photo is my Randalli and the bottom photo is my Bellulus - both are paired with gobies but I got my randalli separate to my yasha.

The other way you could do a shrimp is through the Stenopus genus. Stenopus shrimp have claws that very few fish are likely to mess with (especially the smaller fish we have in captivity). My Boxer (Stenopus scuttelatus) went into my 4’ tank and got completely ignored, now he has claws that none of my fish (and even I) don’t want to mess with. I have seen him catch some of the fish’s fins however he never does proper damage, he only does enough damage to scare off his potential predators. This isn’t my best photo of him however it’s a recent pho

I hope this helps you with what shrimp you may get away with :)
If you have any other questions then feel free to ask them, I’m sure if I can’t answer them then others will be happy to help! As I like to say;
Why have the information if it never gets shared?

 

[Andreas' Reef]

In my old 30 gal I had a diamond goby. Would he pair with a tiger pistol, do you think?

You'll have your best luck with cryptocentrus

 

[Wendyr]

No worries :)
I assume you’re referring to me with wasting time, if so then you aren’t - I spend pretty much all day on here when I’m not busy.

Looking at the size of your tank you should get away with a pistol shrimp however be incredibly cautious and I recommend you get a larger pistol (Alpheus bellulus is the larger of the two common pistol shrimp and attains a size of 2 inches). I have 6 shrimp in total and although none of my 20ish fish are hawkfish, I do have 10 wrasses (4 in my SPS Reef and 6 in my Mixed Reef).
Here’s what I would do;
If you want a shrimp then the Indonesian cleaners (Lysmata amboinensis) are the best as my current one is currently just pushing 3 inches if not 3.5. My second one that passed earlier was just under 3 inches as well - both can be seen in this older photo as 1.5-2 inch specimens.

Alpheus Bellulus is just as pretty as Alpheus randalli but in a different way - I have both although I’ve never seen my bellulus compared to how often I’ve seen my randalli. The Bellulus as I said will get much larger than randalli will, and you should be alright with a bellulus as if they settle without being scouted out (I feel like my Bellulus was scouted by my two Halichoeres wrasses) then they can grow to rather large sizes. The top photo is my Randalli and the bottom photo is my Bellulus - both are paired with gobies but I got my randalli separate to my yasha.

The other way you could do a shrimp is through the Stenopus genus. Stenopus shrimp have claws that very few fish are likely to mess with (especially the smaller fish we have in captivity). My Boxer (Stenopus scuttelatus) went into my 4’ tank and got completely ignored, now he has claws that none of my fish (and even I) don’t want to mess with. I have seen him catch some of the fish’s fins however he never does proper damage, he only does enough damage to scare off his potential predators. This isn’t my best photo of him however it’s a recent pho

I hope this helps you with what shrimp you may get away with :)
If you have any other questions then feel free to ask them, I’m sure if I can’t answer them then others will be happy to help! As I like to say;
Why have the information if it never gets shared?

Thanks! I'm taking notes! Will look into all of these.