Pistol Shrimp Dilemma

Hey there everyone, I have a noisy (its not that bad lol ) little problem in my 29 gallon. One of my hitchhikers happens to be a Pistol shrimp. He's stayed in the rock that he came on, seems to like it, though much to my dismay so did my free sitting feather worm, which got up out of his tube and planted himself over on that rock. While he was trying to build his tube I would hear the shrimp causing him grief and he would be twitching violently for short periods of time and even start to come out of his tube. This has stopped happening at least when I’m around.
This little pistol shrimp is no more than an inch long, he’s colored a light grey with blue or purple bars across his tail. I cant get a picture of him since all I ever get to see on him 99% of the time is his claw (probably an attempt to flip me the finger)
My dilemma is this: Should I bother to get him a goby friend? My tanks room for fish is rather limited; there are already three green chromis and a pair of Black Clowns. I would prefer to have a blenny who actually serves a purpose.
And is this little shrimp going to kill any of my other inverts (cleaner shrimp, mini brittle stars, snails, hermits, corals etc.)? Removing him is going to be a pain, I kinda like that rock too, and I have no idea how far in my feather worm has gotten himself. I'll do it if hes going to cost me money with his appetite though.

 

I think any other shrimp would be in danger of being pistoled!

TBH i think your tank may have enough fish, but gobies can be benefical too, they clean your sand

 

I love my antenna goby!!

 

I like my gobies. I had a hitchhiker pistol shrimp which I just recently saw for the first time, they haven't paired yet but they're cool little fish regardless.

 

It's really up to you. Just keep in mind there is no guarantee the goby will pair up with the shrimp.

 

Ah, then I best choose my fish wisely with the space I have left. or even add to it at all. I don't really wanna have my chromis living by himself again, it was pitiful watching him try to make friends with the bubbles. So breaking up the minion trio is an out.

 

I love my pistol shrimp and goby! They're probably the most entertaining things in the tank! My pistol shrimp lives peacefully with hermit crabs, snails, a cleaner shrimp, 2 peppermint shrimp, a large brittle star, and a smaller serpeant star. He's never bothered anything, though he will "sound off" if they get too close. He's never bothered the corals, but then I don't have anything directly on the sand bed except rock. They spend all of their time rearranging the sand bed, which keeps it looking good!

 

I have found the only thing you can't really keep with a pistol shrimp is another species of pistol shrimp, unless it's a very large aquarium with lots of rock work it can hide under. I have 2 pistol shrimps which I had to separate because one took over all the rock work in my tank and the other pistol shrimp ended up scurrying around the tank with no where to hide and managed to get in the overflow box. I had just finished setting up my second tank connected to the first so moved it there. In one of my tanks I have peppermint shrimp, cleaner shrimp, glass shrimp, a hermit crab and a sea hare with no problems for the last year. It does occasionally snap at the shrimp, damsels, and hermit crab but only in defense if they get too close, it snaps at them then scurrys back into its hole. I have a male and female watchman goby which live with the pistol shrimp in my main tank. I have observed the pistol shrimp occasionally cleaning the gobies. They make a really interesting pairing. The pistol shrimp seems to be much more active at night. Other inhabitant of the tank: mimic tang, flame fin tang, neon goby, bicolor blenny, 2 yellow tailed damsels, 2 yellow bellied damsels, 2 talbots damsels,a green blenny, anemones, corals and a sand sifting starfish.

 

I have a paired green pistol shrimp and they are huge. I also have a paired coral banded shrimp and a cleaner shrimp. Cleaner shrimp are supposed to be the pistol shrimps favorite meal but never touched em. I did however have a starfish that got chopped up i believe from the pistol shrimp. I have all this and more in a 38 gal. tank. They are very constructive or destructive however you look at it. I have watched them shoot at my hermit crabs and drag them to build a wall set em up turn around and the hermit crawls away and the pistol shrimp comes back with a rock or somthing to keep building a wall. I dont think they are to much of terrorist but you have to keep ther bellies full and if you wanna see em thats a good way. They will come out for food. When i got the pair the female was full of eggs. So in my opinoin they are awesome tank mates and they never really mess with anything on purpose they turn around and kick sand almost like a dog and the sand goes flying up onto coral's and rock but thats just what they do to build tunnels. They usually don't just come out from under the rocks to terrorize cause they are afraid of fish. Oh yea i later bought a yellow watchman goby and it was like they just knew what to do the three of them are buddys and it is awesome to watch them do their thing. I want to get another pistol shrimp shrimp goby for my 55 gal. tank. And yes they are noisy but its not annoying noise. They pop for stunning and communication just wish i knew what they were talking about.

 

You could always get another (opposite sex) yellow watchman goby for your original watchman goby so you'll have a pair with a pair!! That would be cool. The male yellow watchman goby is more yellow than the female, female is more grey in colour: My Gobies