If it's Alpheus randalli, then pretty much any Shrimp Goby in the hobby should pair with them. What goby are you wanting to match it with?
Well, the sky's basically the limit for these, so I'd say to find a shrimp goby you like and just double check here if you're not sure if they'll pair:
For the best time to add them, pretty much any time should work - a lot of people like to add them at the same time as the shrimp. I'd just suggest you make sure you've taken care of any disease preps you feel are appropriate before adding it to try and avoid any problems that way.
Nope. They'll make it as big as they need to in order to be comfortable.
Mine is 99% peaceful. He will grab snails and drag them in his burrow anytime they get too close, but there’s never been a casualty. I also once watched him grab my Hippo Tang by the face when it got too close, but again - no harm done.dang, thats pretty cooland the watchmans are supposed to be peaceful community fish am i right.
Yeah, A. randalli will pair with a yellow watchman goby; success rates are really high from what I've seen, though it sometimes takes a few days for them to pair up.
You can add a second goby and/or shrimp, but you want to be a bit careful about it - long story short, a breeder box hanging in the tank (allowing the fish to see each other and for chemicals in the water to travel between the DT and the box) for the second goby to wait in for a few days is a good idea:
It's absolutely worth a shot.
They are monogamous and will share a burrow - and not just for the mating season, but permanently (and most Alpheus spp. are this way - see the links at the bottom). I would assume they have two separate sexes (i.e. that they aren't hermaphroditic), but I don't know for sure. Additionally, I'm not sure how to sex the shrimp, but I've heard it's quite difficult to do without taking the shrimp out of the water.
If you're careful with the pairings, you can get two gobies and two shrimp living and breeding in the same burrow:
"When the sexual maturity is reached, normally a pair male-female of gobies shares the same burrow together with a pair of shrimps."
(Quote from the reefs.com article linked below.)
A quick note here on pistol shrimp diet - pistol shrimp do not seem to be predatory, rather they seem to be more opportunistic, omnivorous scavengers (the only "hunting" that seems to take place outside of the burrow is done by the gobies, not the shrimp, and - to my knowledge - no one has ever confirmed if the shrimp actually eat the "prey" brought to them by the gobies; it might be that the goby eats them rather than the shrimp, or the shrimp might eat them as people generally assume):
Goby and shrimp associations: more than meets the eye - Coral Reefs
link.springer.com
For examples of the shrimp and goby pairings (both in and out of aquariums), see these links:
Aquarium Fish: Sharing a small house without conflicts: the pistol shrimp and the shrimpgoby’s life
Coral Reefs, thousand of species, thousand of associations: but the relationship between little gobies and their shrimp partners is one of the most famous and better balanced, where everybody wins and nobody loses. A wonderful example of mutualistic symbiosis.reefs.com
Breeding and Heterosexual Pairing in the Snapping Shrimp Alpheus estuariensis (Caridea: Alpheidae) in a Tropical Bay in Northeastern Brazil
Abstract. We investigated aspects of the breeding biology, including the reproductive period, egg production, and heterosexual pairing of the snapping shriacademic.oup.com
