Shrimp and Goby Questions

I got a pair of Yellow Watchmans and a Candy Stripe Pistol Shrimp today at the LFS. Couple questions. When they went into the tank, all three jetted off in different directions. Will they meet up again? My Pistol Shrimp started burrowing under a single rock. The rock seemed to drop down a little-maybe a quarter inch at MOST- and I haven't seen him since. Being paranoid I have to ask if there's a chance the rock hit him? I don't think so, but I just have to ask. Also, in a 90 gallon, could I also keep a Randall's Goby with another shrimp, or would they kill each other?

 

IMO shrimp are pretty tough. Many times I have had the exact same experience. You buy a goby and shrimp and then poof, no shrimp. Unless they were acclmated incorrectly, or you purchased the shrimp too close to its shedding, you should be okay. One day you will be surprised when it pops out of nowhere. As nice as it sounds to have a perfect union of goby and shrimp, you can never assume it will happen. I have purchased them together as a pair and then...success!

 

I've heard mixed reports of them pairing. I do hope so. I hope the pair of watchmans at least find each other again. What about multiple shrimp gobies? Would that end badly?

 

pistol/tiger shrimp eh`

well with the experience I have had with these little guys, they will most likely find eachother. If your base rocks aren't sunk down for proper support he will undermine your tank and potentially cause a problem.

I also have found that they can be crushed by a "cave in" but is not too common for they have escape route in mind and are very fast.


I have had quite a few customers request that it be removed because of " re-arranging habbits" so good luck and hope advice has helped.


~kerbstreet~

 

I believe my rocks are sunk in. I have a sort of traveling LFS guy that rearranged them for me so they look like a reef wall and he said that they were dug down to the bottom. I saw the little Pistol Shrimp again last night. Scratch my question about another shrimp/goby pair. I already have the rest of my stocking planned. I'm pretty close to the limit.

 

I always worry about the rocks, but we put our base rock in before adding the sand, so it's on the bottom. We also epoxyed the rocks together - so far, I haven't seen any movement. It's a good thing, because the shrimp can do some major bulldozing of the sand bed.

As for the pair, we acclimated our shrimp/first goby together and released them together. They went in different directions - the shrimp did fine, but we found the goby dead about a week later - he just never seemed "right." So, we bought goby #2, a pinkbar. The found each other about a day later and were doing great, then the goby decided to vault out the tank. Dead goby #2. I decided to try ONE MORE TIME and got a yellow watchman. It may have been a coincidence, but they found each other in about 10 minutes. The goby circled the tank and the dove in a hole - it just happened to be the hole the shrimp was in! They've been doing great since - goby is eating out of the sand, seems healthy, and hopefully will stay in the tank. Good luck!