Pistol shrimp killing everything?!

[JayM]

To In fact, I've heard of multiple cases of the goby bringing the shrimp a small snail or hermit, the shrimp bringing it inside, and the snail/hermit crawling out of the burrow unharmed later.

Yep. My YWG snatches nassarius snails and drags them into the lair he shares with the tiger every time they venture too close. They’ve never failed to emerge soon after completely unscathed.

 

[Cthulukelele]

Yep. My YWG snatches nassarius snails and drags them into the lair he shares with the tiger every time they venture too close. They’ve never failed to emerge soon after completely unscathed.

I've had the same experience. Sometimes I do hear a cacophony of "Oh crap" snaps before the emerge sometimes because tiger pistols seem to startle easy.

 

[Reefing Qs]

As an update here, I've all but confirmed it was the shrimp. Barring catching him red handed, I had to remove him to see if things improved. I ripped apart the tank to catch him, moved him over to the nem prison cube with the other murderers. He. is. HUGE. 3+ inches and thick body + claws - I could probably boil the dang thing as a meal. "Max size 2" " was a lie.

Happy to report the physical damage to all of my fish has stopped and everyone is now fully healed. To my surprise, the fish are even hiding less/more active in the tank throughout the day now. I think he was harassing them for months or ever since he got large enough to do damage.

 

[JayM]

As an update here, I've all but confirmed it was the shrimp. Barring catching him red handed, I had to remove him to see if things improved. I ripped apart the tank to catch him, moved him over to the nem prison cube with the other murderers. He. is. HUGE. 3+ inches and thick body + claws - I could probably boil the dang thing as a meal. "Max size 2" " was a lie.

Happy to report the physical damage to all of my fish has stopped and everyone is now fully healed. To my surprise, the fish are even hiding less/more active in the tank throughout the day now. I think he was harassing them for months or ever since he got large enough to do damage.

Pic?

 

[Reefing Qs]

I unfortunately didn't grab one during the transfer, I'll need to grab a side or top-down shot to get his real size.

Happily hunting in his new tank:

 

[Idech]

I unfortunately didn't grab one during the transfer, I'll need to grab a side or top-down shot to get his real size.

Happily hunting in his new tank:

What kind of pistol shrimp is that ? It looks big compared to my tiger pistol shrimp

 

[Reefing Qs]

Japanese Snapping Shrimp (Alpheus bisincisus).

Funny enough, as I was looking them up around when I moved him I found this tweet below from Live Aquaria, selling a 3" one so clearly the 2" size on their main page listing is just inaccurate. FWIW, I picked mine out from a LFS sold as a generic pistol shrimp - that's what I get for picking the "different" one.

I got mine as a juvenile May 2022 and he's already this big, I imagine he'll continue to grow. He eats chunks of food that even the clowns can't chew.

 

[bugs]

 I don't like these old threads bad information. Yes japanese red pistols are a threat, but even big tiger pistol shrimp are nearly blind scavengers who are barely able to collect floating meat from the water column much less kill a healthy free swimming fish. They will scavenge a fish corpse in a second though, and I'd suspect 99 times out of 100 when you hear someone describing a tiger pistol that killed their fish they're describing a tiger that ate a dead or dying fish as that's one of their staple diets in the wild.

I had a mccoskers wrasse living in a conch. The tiger pistol and the ywg burrowed under it. I think they burrowed up and killed the wrasse during the night.

 

[SteveMM62Reef]

I think my Tiger Pistol Shrimp, killed most of my Blue Leg Hermit Crabs. I had a couple dozen in my 120 Gallon Aquarium. Now I’m down to just a few of the larger ones. Strange thing is, I never saw any bodies, like when one Hermit, kills another Hermit Crab. Also I have lots of Shells in my mixed sand bed. When I bought it, I looked at it with a Magnifying Glass, to make sure it was the tiny Pistol Shrimp they were selling. Since adding it to the Aquarium, haven’t seen or heard it.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

I think my Tiger Pistol Shrimp, killed most of my Blue Leg Hermit Crabs. I had a couple dozen in my 120 Gallon Aquarium. Now I’m down to just a few of the larger ones. Strange thing is, I never saw any bodies, like when one Hermit, kills another Hermit Crab. Also I have lots of Shells in my mixed sand bed. When I bought it, I looked at it with a Magnifying Glass, to make sure it was the tiny Pistol Shrimp they were selling. Since adding it to the Aquarium, haven’t seen or heard it.

Out of curiosity, if you haven't seen or heard the pistol shrimp since you added it, and your hermits have also been disappearing without a trace, why do you think the pistol shrimp is the cause and not another victim?

Also, do you have any pics of the shrimp? I know of quite a few places selling "Tiger Pistol Shrimps" that are not Alpheus bellulus.

 

[SteveMM62Reef]

I didn’t take pictures of the pistol shrimp, also I’m sure it’s in the Aquarium, there’s an extensive burrow under on of my rocks, with a big pile of gravel in front of it. Also a Yellow Watchman Goby has paired with it. I have another Yellow Watchman Goby, in that Aquarium, it’s under another rock, but didn’t create that cave.