Royal Gramma has Just bit off my new Tiger pistol shrimps tail

[Stodge12001]

Hi all, I have just added a tiger pistol shrimp to my tank along with a yellow watchman goby

When I added the pistol he landed on a rock and went into a hole facefirst with his tail popping out.

After about 10 minutes of me watching the shrimp, the royal gramma swam over. I thought he was just inspecting his new tank mate. Then to my surprise he went for the pistol shrimp, picked him up at his tail and carried him over to his cave where he bit off the tail off the pistol shrimp which then escaped.

I was horrified this happened. And want to find out 1,will the shrimp survive and 2, will the tail grow back?

I think in hindsight I should of fed the tank before adding new addition.

I am quite new to the hobby and have had my tank since November 2020

Any advice on this would be great thanks.

 

[Fish Think Pink]

Google search turned up this bit of hopeful news: https://www.njreefers.org/threads/regeneration-of-cleaner-shrimp-tail.63770/

If he didn't lose too much and IF more of shrimp doesn't get eaten by fish then it may take numerous molts. He might never be same, but sounds like he has potential to be happy.

Few months back I added two medium peppermint shrimp to the skunk cleaner shrimp I already had, so up to three shrimp total, 25 minutes later I was back down to 1 very scared skunk cleaner shrimp. Six line wrasse became most popular fish in tank as he'd break shrimp into bits other fish could eat. Had to pull out shrimp legs from all over tank - fish played tug-of-war with remains. It was very sad.

 

[Stodge12001]

Thanks for the info. Tail is Completley gone, no sign of him since. But he is in the same location where the yellow watchman goby is hiding in a cave so hopefully they will pair up. If he survives

Wow that sounds crazy, kind of liked the six lines may steer clear of them now.

 

[Fish Think Pink]

Thanks for the info. Tail is Completley gone, no sign of him since. But he is in the same location where the yellow watchman goby is hiding in a cave so hopefully they will pair up. If he survives

Wow that sounds crazy, kind of liked the six lines may steer clear of them now.

juvenile fish and adult fish for ALL fish are different, some extremely different. Always remember what seemed safe today may not still be safe combination tomorrow. We feed them cut up shrimp, get excited when we can find something live to feed our babies, its not much of a stretch to think they want to find something live to feed themselves, too. Maybe your Royal Gamma is inquisitive like most, thought you were giving him shrimp tail treat, so he took a bite...

My fish is old fat mellow dude at least 5" long <wink> basketball-player six line wrasse... he does like to swim up and down the tank like running court from net to net. Don't judge them all by this one, but all fish should be considered potential predators - they are doing what they evolved to do in the wild

 

[Zionas]

Lol how long have you had your Six Line? 5” sounds huge for one lol.

 

[Fish Think Pink]

juvenile fish and adult fish for ALL fish are different, some extremely different. Always remember what seemed safe today may not still be safe combination tomorrow. We feed them cut up shrimp, get excited when we can find something live to feed our babies, its not much of a stretch to think they want to find something live to feed themselves, too. Maybe your Royal Gamma is inquisitive like most, thought you were giving him shrimp tail treat, so he took a bite...

My fish is old fat mellow dude at least 5" long <wink> basketball-player six line wrasse... he does like to swim up and down the tank like running court from net to net. Don't judge them all by this one, but all fish should be considered potential predators - they are doing what they evolved to do in the wild

When wrasse ate/ripped up live peppermint shrimp, afterward Sailfin tang (herbivore) swam around munching on shrimp leg like happy reveler eating turkey leg at Renaissance Festival - sad day but funny moment

 

[Fish Think Pink]

Lol how long have you had your Six Line? 5” sounds huge for one lol.

I got him from a guy leaving hobby who got him from guy leaving hobby. We think he is 6-8 years old, so he's OLD for this type of wrasse (5-8 year lifespan). Hoping my fish live longer than aquarium standards - he has TONS of personality but is mellow with the other fish. My sailfin likes to stake out cave entrance, wait for him to pass going right, then chase him... wrasse goes FAST to far other end of tank, then comes back and often they'll do that over and over... its like dog chasing its tail type fun

 

[Zionas]

Lol nice. Do you think he’ll make it to 10+ years?

 

[Fish Think Pink]

Hi all, I have just added a tiger pistol shrimp to my tank along with a yellow watchman goby

When I added the pistol he landed on a rock and went into a hole facefirst with his tail popping out.

After about 10 minutes of me watching the shrimp, the royal gramma swam over. I thought he was just inspecting his new tank mate. Then to my surprise he went for the pistol shrimp, picked him up at his tail and carried him over to his cave where he bit off the tail off the pistol shrimp which then escaped.

I was horrified this happened. And want to find out 1,will the shrimp survive and 2, will the tail grow back?

I think in hindsight I should of fed the tank before adding new addition.

I am quite new to the hobby and have had my tank since November 2020

Any advice on this would be great thanks.

Hoping your shrimp makes it, but if he doesn't and if you try again, perhaps introduce next shrimp as the lights go off. Wanted to mention that, but think I forgot. While fish sleep, it gives shrimp time to find hiding places

 

[Fish Think Pink]

Lol nice. Do you think he’ll make it to 10+ years?

I hope so. Doubt he gets any longer... and while I don't think he can get any fatter, I know he wants to try! All his swimming is looking for more food, any twitch in sand, and dives in like hawk on sparrow then splashes sand like shark would do going for eel. He spits more sand than my old yellow jawfish used to do. Bedtime he is able to swan dive gracefully/cleanly into sand to sleep.

 

[Zionas]

Sounds like you got an awesome fish xD best of all seems to be quite well-behaved for a Six Line.

How was your Jawfish btw they seem interesting but I won’t have enough sand for one. How long did you have yours?

 

[Fish Think Pink]

Sounds like you got an awesome fish xD best of all seems to be quite well-behaved for a Six Line.

How was your Jawfish btw they seem interesting but I won’t have enough sand for one. How long did you have yours?

two years I had jawfish, then moved to move in with BF and BF gave all our fish away to someone working at LFS... who he then left me for and got all our old fish back... but that was years ago, they got married, yada yada - I left hobby for years over it. Coming back to hobby no one seems to do undergravel any more with regularity but jawfish tanks need that. I've shelved my blue jawfish dreams for updated dreams about corals

 

[Zionas]

I’m sorry to hear about what happened to you and hope you found someone better since. XD

Yeah it’s the deep sand bed that makes my planned setup incompatible with Jawfish but yeah they aren’t an overly high priority for me. I like many angels.

 

[Fish Think Pink]

I’m sorry to hear about what happened to you and hope you found someone better since. XD

Yeah it’s the deep sand bed that makes my planned setup incompatible with Jawfish but yeah they aren’t an overly high priority for me. I like many angels.

What is your favorite angel? I just have a flame. With current combo, that may have to remain my only angel.

Just like mixed reef mistakes, we get better with experience if we just try again! Been blessed!

 

[Zionas]

That’s good to hear hehe

My favorite? Hard to say as there are many I like. Genicanthus are some of my faves. I like quite a few Centropyge and some Apolemichthys too. Regal if it wasn’t so difficult. Passer is perhaps my favorite large-large angel.