Pistol Shrimp Location

[Crowned_Sock]

I recently got a candy can pistol shrimp and a yellow watchman, they are both about a half inch and size, and I have two clownfish in my tank already. Any tips on locating the shrimp? I haven’t seen it since Sunday when I got it.

 

[Tahoe61]

I recently got a candy can pistol shrimp and a yellow watchman, they are both about a half inch and size, and I have two clownfish in my tank already. Any tips on locating the shrimp? I haven’t seen it since Sunday when I got it.

It could be molting or just burrowing. You're going to have to wait until you see a decrease in water clarity or fresh evacuation.

 

[logibear]

I got a pistol shrimp and goby together but after a week or so the goby jumped. I didn’t see the pistol shrimp for MONTHS and assumed it died. Then one evening as the lights were dimming I saw it crawl from under a rock. I got another goby and it took one week for them to find each other and now they are out of their burrow every day unless it is molting.

TLDR: they can hide for a long time. Don’t worry, they’ll find each other and show up eventually

 

[ScottJ]

I got a tiny pistol shrimp more than a year ago. Haven't seen him since he went in. We hear him snapping sometimes, though. I'm not sure if he ever hooked up with my YWG or not.

 

[Crowned_Sock]

I got a pistol shrimp and goby together but after a week or so the goby jumped. I didn’t see the pistol shrimp for MONTHS and assumed it died. Then one evening as the lights were dimming I saw it crawl from under a rock. I got another goby and it took one week for them to find each other and now they are out of their burrow every day unless it is molting.

TLDR: they can hide for a long time. Don’t worry, they’ll find each other and show up eventually

If I got a breeder box and put the two in there, would that help pair them and make the two less skittish? Also if the pistol shrimp somehow hit me would it hurt?

 

[Tahoe61]

If I got a breeder box and put the two in there, would that help pair them and make the two less skittish? Also if the pistol shrimp somehow hit me would it hurt?

No, no and no.

That's a pistol shrimps nature. You can not find him now, digging the shrimp up at this point seems counter intuitive.

But hey you weren't asking me.

 

[Euphyllia098]

I didn't see mine for well over a year. Occasionally I'd hear it camping is claw. Then when I drop my new tank I found him when transferring everything over beneath a rock. Haven't seen him again since the move about 3 weeks ago.

I wouldn't worry about it and trying to find him is a bad idea imo. Let him hide.

 

[logibear]

If I got a breeder box and put the two in there, would that help pair them and make the two less skittish? Also if the pistol shrimp somehow hit me would it hurt?

First of all good luck catching it to put it in a breeder box and second I agree with the other posters. Leave them be, if they are meant to bond they will, if not it was just how nature intended these two to be. kind of like clowns, sometimes they pair, sometimes they don’t.

 

[painter1982]

I have a candy cane pistol shrimp. It disappeared one evening. I heard it snapping in the sump. I caught it and put it back in the display only to have it return to the sump. It made it through the filter roller, past the skimmer and into the refugium twice. I left him there. When I went to transfer him to my new mariner m130 I couldn’t find him at first. He went a week in the old sump with no heat or circulation. I thought he was dead when I discovered him. But amazingly he was alive. He now resides in my refugium digging up the miracle mud I added.

 

[Gregg @ ADP]

One thing I do when adding the shrimp and gobie is to put them together in a jar/cup of water. Then I take just the tube portion of a gravel siphon cleaner, shove one end into the sand, and dump the goby and shrimp in together. Once the shrimp starts digging, you can gently pull the siphon, and they should stay together.