Watchman Goby and Pistol Shrimp Owners

rockhead51 · Feb 13, 2017

Oh, where to start. 32 gal BioCube. No idea what kind of sand, but see the picture. Absolutely love these guys. No sandstorms, but they do some digging (my first scape shifted severely due to tunneling under live rock- when I rearranged the scape I settled the rock deeper and now no problems). Tiger pistol definitely uses empty shells for decorating, and has tried to use snails and hermits. A little tug of war and all is good.
I got a pair originally, but when I changed up my rocks, the YWG went missing. Looked everywhere and assumed he was dead. Got a new one (Silvio Dante is the name- Google it and look at the frown), who I liked much better- he is more independent and spends more time out and about. They bonded in a day or so, but the YWG is still pretty adventurous, and the shrimp often goes along.
Last week I was cleaning the tank and saw some movement in the back center chamber of the BioCube. Sure enough, there was the first one, living in some rubble and eating copepods (I presume). I kept Silvio because of his adventurous spirit. My LFS took the first one back and gave me a credit.
Other stock: 2 occy clowns, 1 cherub angel, CUC (nassarius and troches snails, and red and blue legged hermits), and then most softies.

JasonT · Feb 13, 2017

Took this today my fish list is honey damsel, 2 clowns, 3 lyretail anthius, royal gramma starry blennie and a kole tang. The kole tang is the only issue I really like him but he bothers the gobies sometimes and always hassles the blennie the gobies are fine as they just retreat into their cave but long term either the blennie or the kole tang has to go.

Travis Stewart · Feb 13, 2017

Love mine. They do tend to put things and move stuff. I lost a really nice mushroom because they pulled it inside their hole. Mine typically use the same tunnels and hardly make new ones. I guess it depends on the pair! They are very fun to watch!

jlanger · Feb 13, 2017

Gobies paired with pistol shrimp is one of my greatest interested in this hobby.
I currently have three separate goby/shrimp pairs. One of my tanks (Fluval M60) was set up just to keep gobies and pistol shrimps; and a blenny.

The Fluval has my pair of Wheeler's Gobies that are with a Candy Cane Pistol Shrimp.
They've been together for over a year now with no issues. The small tank also has a female Bangaii Cardinalfish, a Royal Gramma and a small One Spot Foxface. Previous inhabitants have included a male Bangaii Cardinalfish, a pair of Yasha Gobies and Candy Cane Pistol Shrimp, a Geometric Pygmy Hawkfish (Perchlet), a small Lemonpeel Angelfish and a Pictus Blenny. None of the other fish have ever bothered the gobies or the shrimp. They have stayed underneath one specific rock the entire time. The shrimp does periodically move the entrances around so new piles of sand do so up from time to time; but nothing catastrophic.

My 120gal reef has a pair of Randall's Gobies with a Tiger Pistol shrimp and an Orange Spotted Goby with a Tiger Pistol Shrimp.
My aquascaping has two islands of rock that each shrimp has made its territory. So the Randall's Gobies stay on one side of the tank while the Orange Spotted Goby has the other side. The two pistol shrimp are aware of each other (snapping, of course), but I've never seen them interact. Their burrows haven't really changed locations, but sometimes the shrimp will fill in an entrance and open a new one next to it. They're definitely busy little crustaceans.
Tiger Pistol Shrimps are a bigger species so you can expect to see much more sand being moved around. I placed my aquascaping on the bottom glass before I added the sand so that none of the rocks would shift if the shrimp dug underneath them. The tiger pistols do like to grab small frags, shells and even clams to help reinforce their burrows, so it's a good idea to keep smaller items away from their burrows. I've kept the Japanese Red Pistol Shrimp also, but that shrimp didn't want anything to do with gobies, so it kept to itself and really didn't move around the tank.
The other inhabitants for this tank include(d) many typical reef fish; anthias, blennies, tangs, rabbitfishes, angelfish, clownfish, wrasses, other gobies and cardinalfish. All with no issues with the gobies or shrimp.

The behaviors of the fish and shrimp are great to watch. Since they're very active and work together, you can constantly witness their relationship. My fish are comfortable enough with their environment that they allow the shrimps to work outside of the burrow at all hours of the day.
I highly recommend having these fish and shrimp in a reef environment.

Dave wyatt · Feb 13, 2017

Have a yellow fin goby and pistol shrimp. They were bought as a pair. Hear the shrimp poping several times a day. Mostly at the hermit crabs. They are in a 5 gal. Tank. Fun to watch. The shrimp has about four different entrences. Piles of small shells at each cave opening. Nothing collapsed so far. The shrimp goes around to each entrench at the end of the day and covers them up.

kingdog22 · Feb 13, 2017

I have a 20 gallon tank that has a bonded pair of Dracula Gobies with a bonded pair of pistol shrimps on one side and on the other side I have a bonded pair of Yasha gobies with a bonded pair of pistol shrimps. Also in the tank are a bonded pair of target mandarins, bonded pair of Davinci clownfish. Bonded pair of cleaner shrimp, bonded pair of fire shrimp, bonded pair of peppermint shrimp. 1 Colorado sunburst anemone, 1 rainbow anenome that both have anenome crabs in the. Them a few corals. Acan, gsp, jack o lantern, incredible hulk, zoas, purple, green, red monti. White gsp, and mushrooms. Orange, purple, green torch. A dragon's soul torch. Green and purple hammer. And 2 other pistol shrimps that live under the acans and musrooms. I absolutely love this tank. And it's such a joy to watch. I forgot my bonded pair of red scooter blennys and my white banded possum wrasse.

kingdog22 · Feb 13, 2017

Philt56 · Feb 13, 2017

Great timing, I just took this today as I saw the shrimp excavating again.
Tiger pistol and metallic goby.

I'm envious of all the super clear close ups posted.

TigerReefer · Feb 13, 2017

Here are my pair. I have fine sand as well. No sandstorms but he does rearrange things almost weekly. Very fun relationship to watch. I highly recommend.

billrob71 · Feb 13, 2017

Have a yellow watchman and a tiger pistol, a yellow antenna goby and a candy stripe pistol and a yasha hasse goby with a tiger pistol in my tank , no problems with any of them, fun to watch and happy I got them no regrets and looking forward to the next choice just not sure which pair will come next.

townjas · Feb 13, 2017

I had a banded ray goby and a pistol shrimp until they had a lovers quarrel and the shrimp cut the goby almost completely in half. The goby survived for a few days but the damage was too much. [emoji53]

NanaReefer · Feb 13, 2017

Zero cons all positives! Love mine [emoji2] 40B/20l sump. Housed with a 6Line and Banggai.

RobertN · Feb 13, 2017

I have a Randall's Goby and Tiger Pistol Shrimp....for over a year now, in my 100g cube. I also have a Melanurus Wrasse, Pajama Cardinal, 5 Scissortail Gobies, pair of Clownfish, Yellow Tang and Hippo Tang, Carpenter Wrasse, Rainford's Goby, Mottled Filefish, Copperband Butterfly. I don't have many CUC critters left. I think the Melanurus Wrasse has done in a bunch of them as he has gotten bigger, but I don't know for sure if the Pistol Shrimp killed off any of the Skunk Cleaner Shrimp I've tried to keep in the past year.
And I now strongly believe that the Pistol Shrimp has periodically killed certain new fish that I've introduced shortly after I've put them into the tank--ones that sleep in the sand, and because they were new, probably inadvertently got too close to the burrow of the Shrimp at night when they went under the rocks to sleep in the sand and he zapped them. I've lost some fairy and flasher wrasses at times in a short time after they were introduced and had been eating and looking good. I originally had no thought that the Pistol Shrimp might have had a role in any of those losses. And I'm not saying I know that it did kill them for sure with any of them, though I would bet it did with at least a couple or so. What gave me this idea was what happened recently.
I recently bought 3 Blue Gudgeon Gobies and had them in an acclimation box for about 3 days. They were eating fine. At that point in time, I wasn't even sure I still had the Pistol Shrimp. I hadn't seen it for several months and hadn't heard the popping sound at night in all of that time. You see, the Randall's Goby and the Shrimp moved their burrow into the right middle cave area under the main stack of rocks in my tank and basically became impossible to view anymore. Originally they were on the left side of the tank, then later on moved to the right side. They were at least more interesting to have in the tank when they were visible on the sides of the tank, but when they moved into the right middle cave area under the rocks about 6 months ago, I stopped being able to see the Shrimp--the Goby still comes out at feeding time, but mostly stays under the edge of the stack of rocks. They moved to this more protected area after I got the 2 Tangs.....it seems they were frightened by the active movement of them. Back to the Gudgeon Gobies.... When I let them out of the acclimation box, they seemed fine....even started to eat. No other fish were noticing or paying any attention to them, and I'd have been surprised if they would have been bullied since they look so similar to the Scissortail Gobies who have been in my tank for 2+ months now with no trouble.
That night, I was up till almost 12 am and as I was sitting at my kitchen table a little before I went to bed, I heard the characteristic pops.....several of them. I remember thinking, "Oh, the Pistol Shrimp isn't dead after all.....that's nice." The next day, the Gudgeon Gobies were nowhere to be seen, not even at feeding time. And they never did appear again. I am as certain as I can be without having seen it with my own eyes that the Gudgeon Gobies, being new to the tank, didn't know where they were supposed to and not supposed to bury themselves in the sand in regards to the Pistol Shrimp. I'm thinking they got too close to the burrow and were seen as a threat and were killed.
The Shrimp and Randall's Goby were indeed interesting to watch when they were in a more visible place, and I also like that they move around the sand in the cave areas under the rocks where I can't get to with any sort of stirring. Those are the Pro's. But another Con besides my belief that I've lost some fish (and possibly one or more Cleaner Shrimp) to the Shrimp is what others have mentioned above--the stealing of some of my corals that were on the sand. The one good thing about them moving their burrow under the stack of rocks is that they haven't taking any corals from the sand since that time. Probably that's also because they've now got all of the coral skeletons, snail and hermit crab shells, and little pieces of rubble that they need to keep their burrow intact. And also, when they were in more visible areas, there were a number of times when they also covered quite fully some corals on the sand due to their movement of sand to adjust and revise the burrow. I lost some of those corals even after just one 24 hour period of being covered.
I do want to trap the Pistol Shrimp and bring it to an LFS, but trapping it is going to be pretty unlikely.

AcanSkywalker · Feb 14, 2017

RickG · Feb 14, 2017

gift and a curse. Nice addition to the tank but definitely will be making burrows all along your tank. Constantly moves some of my corals that i have on the sand bed

Areseebee · Feb 14, 2017

IC3NIN3 said:
I've had my yasha goby and pistol shrimp for 2 months now. I bought them at the same time and they quickly became best buds. The first couple of days the shrimp created sand storms and huge sand dunes but he then stopped. He occasionally stirs up sand. The pair are fun to watch when they're out...they stay in their burrow for most of the day but they always come out for feeding. I also have a clownfish and a Banggai cardinal in my 10 gal nano but everybody gets along. I haven't seen my shrimp take any frags but he does like to dig under my scoly.

This is great video, it looks like the goby actually pulls the shrimp into the hole or maybe is just biting his tail to tell him to retreat.

WhiskeyCoffee · Feb 14, 2017

Any issues keeping YWG in sugar sand? (The really fine beach like stuff)

Xephic · Jul 9, 2017

Started out with a Tiger Pistol Shrimp and an Orange Spotted Goby. They bonded over night. Lost the Orange Spotted to fluke. Ran the tank with nothing but the Tiger rearranging all the sand for about a month while hitting the tank with Parazipro. Once that was done I picked up a Hi-Fin Yellow Face Goby. They bonded over night!! Few min ago I heard his classic popping. Went to look and found the Tiger trimming my Dragons Breath Macroalgae while the Hi-Fin provides overwatch. Now I know why my Macro is always falling apart.... that and shells, hermits and Snails... using caribsea reef sand with minimal sand storms.