Lost my Yasha Goby today to my Tiger Shrimp!

[frostywite]

Had my Yasha for almost a year. Had an original pair with a Tiger, the first Tiger got crushed after a week. Got him another Tiger Pistol, supported the rock and Yasha had been happily paired with him for almost 11 months. About 2 weeks ago the Goby had not come out of the cave. Today I was shocked to see him out and in the corner of the tank barely breathing. He had two distinct marks on his swollen belly that looked the size of the claw and was covered with fuzzy fungus. He swam back into the cave for a sec, came back out and did a horrific death spiral/squirm. I ended up dispatching in ice water. Would not recommend Tiger Yasha pair. RiP Gobyone.

 

[SaltySqueeble]

So sorry to hear.

 

[droblack]

Sad to hear of your loss. It is possible the fish became ill and then the shrimp went into action. Sometimes, it appears something killed something else, when it is actually scavenging or perhaps finishing it off. On the other hand, all shrimp are evil.

 

[frostywite]

@droblack Doubtful the goby was ill, autopsy showed no parasites, gills were clear. No fish have been added, just a clown, goby and shrimp for a year. Got a few coral frags months ago. Shrimp definitely got bigger fast as it was about the same size as the goby when I got him but is now maybe 1/2” longer than the goby was.

Back in July. Snap at clown fish

 

[Common Blevil]

Had my Yasha for almost a year. Had an original pair with a Tiger, the first Tiger got crushed after a week. Got him another Tiger Pistol, supported the rock and Yasha had been happily paired with him for almost 11 months. About 2 weeks ago the Goby had not come out of the cave. Today I was shocked to see him out and in the corner of the tank barely breathing. He had two distinct marks on his swollen belly that looked the size of the claw and was covered with fuzzy fungus. He swam back into the cave for a sec, came back out and did a horrific death spiral/squirm. I ended up dispatching in ice water. Would not recommend Tiger Yasha pair. RiP Gobyone.

Sorry i am late, but it is possible that it was the shrimp ho was the culprit. But the reason is, it might not have been tiger pistol "Alpheus belullus". There are a lot of similar looking species of pistol shrimp that are more aggressive and often sold as tigers, even tho they are quite easy to tell apart.

Good tiger. Remember overall bubbly and friendly markings.

Bad tiger. Note overall markings, especially straight lines on the tail and clear legs.

Bad tiger. Note markings on the cephalothorax, differently shaped tail markings and clear legs with yellow spots.

I would not buy a pistol shrimp that does not have the same marking as one on the first photo to pair with a goby. It can look not photoshopped to look orange, and be brown, or in between, but no true peaceful tiger surprisingly has straight tiger stripes. So if you see tiger stripes - do not buy!
The only exceptions are randall's candy cane pistol and some weird yellow one that pairs with amblyeleotris in the wild.

In the future, unless you are dealing with super large goby, get a randall's. It is small, colourful, and if established is really outgoing. They are more manageable and you have no chance to mistake it with bad species. They can be housed with their natural symbionts - stonogobiops gobies, but will be gladly housed with cryptocentrus (YWG) and amblyeleotris (Randall's, Wheeler's, Orange spotted shrimp goby(NOT DIAMOND GOBY) and others).

Hope this helps)

 

[Michael71]

Sorry i am late, but it is possible that it was the shrimp ho was the culprit. But the reason is, it might not have been tiger pistol "Alpheus belullus". There are a lot of similar looking species of pistol shrimp that are more aggressive and often sold as tigers, even tho they are quite easy to tell apart.

Good tiger. Remember overall bubbly and friendly markings.

Bad tiger. Note overall markings, especially straight lines on the tail and clear legs.

Bad tiger. Note markings on the cephalothorax, differently shaped tail markings and clear legs with yellow spots.

I would not buy a pistol shrimp that does not have the same marking as one on the first photo to pair with a goby. It can look not photoshopped to look orange, and be brown, or in between, but no true peaceful tiger surprisingly has straight tiger stripes. So if you see tiger stripes - do not buy!
The only exceptions are randall's candy cane pistol and some weird yellow one that pairs with amblyeleotris in the wild.

In the future, unless you are dealing with super large goby, get a randall's. It is small, colourful, and if established is really outgoing. They are more manageable and you have no chance to mistake it with bad species. They can be housed with their natural symbionts - stonogobiops gobies, but will be gladly housed with cryptocentrus (YWG) and amblyeleotris (Randall's, Wheeler's, Orange spotted shrimp goby(NOT DIAMOND GOBY) and others).

Hope this helps)

Great information here

 

[Zionas]

IMO, the smaller Shrimp Gobies pair better with Alpheus Randalli and the larger ones are more likely to pair with Alpheus Bellulus. But I do believe your “Pistol Shrimp” might not have been a symbiotic species that lived with Gobies.

 

[Common Blevil]

IMO, the smaller Shrimp Gobies pair better with Alpheus Randalli and the larger ones are more likely to pair with Alpheus Bellulus. But I do believe your “Pistol Shrimp” might not have been a symbiotic species that lived with Gobies.

As i said, it probably was a true pistol shrimp, just not a symbiotic one/not the one that pairs with that goby.
Also from what I've seen, even small 1 cm/0.4 inch Alpheus randalli can pair with 6 cm /2.4 inch goby(speaking from experience). I thought goby will eat the shrimp, but no. And I've seen large red pistol shrimp pairing with orange spot shrimp goby that was smaller than it in my LFS.
I think up to 4 inches/10 cm of goby for randalls shrimp and 1.5 - 4+ inches 4-10+ cm of goby for true tiger. True tigers and randalls won't harm the gobies and most cryptocentrus, amblyeleotris and stonogobiops wont eat the pistol shrimp, even if it's small, but i imagine having a big goby and small shrimp will not be comfortable for the goby, because shrimp will go into tight crevices at first and goby will not be able to fit in(but after pairing even small shrimp can make a home big enough for the goby.
Also i don't know, but maybe larger species of gobies, such as bigger cryptocentrus and amblyeleotris may or may not harm the small randall's shrimp.

 

[Fritz05]

Randall's shrimp also moves substantially less substrate around than a Tiger Pistol shrimp. I do love my tiger redecorating my tank and building amazing cave systems using pebbles and snail shells, but I know not everybody does!

 

[Common Blevil]

Randall's shrimp also moves substantially less substrate around than a Tiger Pistol shrimp. I do love my tiger redecorating my tank and building amazing cave systems using pebbles and snail shells, but I know not everybody does!

In the small tank(15 gallons) even a randall's is a bulldozer, can't imagine having a whole 6 cm (2.5 inch) true tiger shrimp in there...
I think if i had a tiger instead of randall's, i would have had the same love hate relationship i have with my bicolor blenny, who i like, but who is a literal @$$hole and like to destroy any coral/algae(or new fish) near his hiding spots, so i needed to take that into consideration when rescaping. As i said can't imagine having a bulldozer with my "lawnmower", so one side of the tank is constantly being buried and another being ripped off anything alive.

PS: might i add the blenny does this only around his barnacle cluster and tube worm tube, no crevices and holes in the rockwork that he frequents are having the same treatment. I think it is either blenny maintaining his sleeping places(so he can have a clear view), or potential nesting area(maintained, so in the wild a blenny mate will see the quality of the nest). He didn't mind something "branching" like xenia for example, but something encrusting and invasive, like GSP, caulerpa lentilifera, andthelia and YP was being ripped off. He didn't destroy them all, only polyps that are near the hiding spot.