Are my fish safe?

[_cpate3_]

I just did my first water change with a fully stocked tank and tried to be safe and gentle, however I kicked up so much debris and I think I sanded in my pistol shrimp and goby’s cave while they’re inside it! Will the pistol shrimp be able to dig them out or do I need to step in and take down the Aquascape?

 

[Eoka]

I just did my first water change with a fully stocked tank and tried to be safe and gentle, however I kicked up so much debris and I think I sanded in my pistol shrimp and goby’s cave while they’re inside it! Will the pistol shrimp be able to dig them out or do I need to step in and take down the Aquascape?

Pistol shrimp dig caves for the gobie they should be fine

 

[Lemons]

Happens all the time in the ocean. They'll get out lol

 

[_cpate3_]

Pistol shrimp dig caves for the gobie they should be fine

I understand that but will it do it fast enough so they don’t suffocate or anything

 

[Lemons]

I understand that but will it do it fast enough so they don’t suffocate or anything

Lots of fish sleep under the sand so really theres no risk of suffication. Just gotta wait it out

 

[jabberwock]

Leave them alone. If they die, they die. Your intervention will only do more harm.

 

[AstroCoral]

They should be fine from my understanding (there is always a possibility of death though). However, in a natural reef they likely experience these events with shifts in the water current where sand blows right over their burrow entrance. As another user said, I would not intervene as you will likely only stress them out more. I had a goby pistol shrimp pair around a decade ago that I thought had died (never saw them), six months later I hear the familiar clicking sound that only a pistol shrimp would make and then saw the pair a few days later - they are resilient and can survive in a tank without you even knowing they are there.