Goby vs Shrimp?

[Schnizzle]

Could my seemingly peaceful shrimp be taking out my gobies?

I have an Alpheus Randalli pistol shrimp. I never hear it snapping. I have lost two separate Stonogobiops Nematodes (Hi Fin Red Banded Goby). The first goby was there well before the shrimp. When I added the shrimp the goby found it right away and took it home. The second goby finally found the shrimp after a week or so and all went well upon meeting. Always working together, the shrimp would keep an antennae on the goby while it kept an eye out for danger. Never saw any aggression between them. The gobies would get out and grab food, then retreat to the tunnel. I'm assuming to feed them both. The shrimp also does just fine without a goby. I have Fiji Pink sand, which does cause the tunnel entrances and exits to collapse every now and then. I'm wondering if when the tunnel entrance collapses and the fish panics, maybe the shrimp inadvertently pops off and kills the goby. I've never found any remains.

I really want the goby/shrimp symbiosis in my tank. Am I messing up with this specific combo? Could I be on to something with the tunnel collapses and maybe start switching to the larger crushed coral for stability and try again?

 

[BeltedCoyote]

It’s possible that your shrimp is taking out gobies, but I kind of doubt it.

if anything, the rest of your CUC is probably eating whatever dies before you can see it.

as far as the substrate question goes, you could always put some rock rubble, crushed coral, shells, etc in a small pile by the entrance of the den. Your shrimp should just grab what it wants/needs to use

 

[ichthyogeek]

^^

What else is in your tank? What's your CUC? There's a lot of other factors that might point out that it's not the shrimp but something else as well.

As for tunnel collapses, those happen in nature as well, but if it were the case that the shrimp were to be startled and pop off at the goby whenever a tunnel collapse happens, then that would make 0 sense for a symbiotic relationship from an evolution point of view.

 

[Schnizzle]

The disappearances only occur during a tunnel collapse. Unless a peppermint shrimp snatches up the goby and the shrimp closes the tunnels in a panic. haha

peppermint shrimp
blue leg and scarlet hermits
porcelain crab
porcelain anemone crab
rock flower nems three feet away
strawberry crab (maybe still there)
variety of snails
conch
serpent star with a 1" disk
redhead and ruby long fin fairy wrasses
lawnmower blenny
tomini tang
two small ocellaris clowns
blotched foxface
cardinalfish
royal gramma