Candy Cane Pistol not burrowing

[ichthyogeek]

Around 4-5 months ago, I received an Alpheus randalli, the tiger pistol shrimp [EDIT: wrong common name, I meant A. randalli, the candy can pistol], from Diver's Den. I provided what I believed to be a suitable substrate for it to burrow in (CaribSea Special grade + a few pieces of rubble), in a tray around 1.5-2" deep and 6"x3". However, time and time again, I've noticed that this shrimp does not like the substrate I'm providing, or is just an outlier. Today, I noticed it wasn't even in a burrow, but instead was just doing its shrimpy thing on the bare glass of the tank. Ammonia and Nitrite are usually around 0 (API test kits are faulty, but 0-0.5 I think counts as 0), and nitrate is usually around less than 10 ppm, with a healthy sustained phytoplankton bloom taking up most of the nitrate. It's not the first time I've noticed this shrimp just out and wandering about away from its burrow, I've seen it do similar things before, using rocks that are ever so slightly together as a makeshift burrow.

This isn't really a problem for me, but I'd like to know if I can go ahead and reduce the amount of rubble and substrate I'm providing. I run my tanks bare, and the substrate bed is a large nutrient trap, something I don't particularly enjoy. I need a small amount of substrate to grow some macroalgae (C. prolifera), but if I can get away with a .5" layer, that would be significantly better for my tank.

 

[Cell]

Not sure you can make a tiger pistol happy confined to just a 6"x3" space to dig. My tiger pistols constantly dig and rehome throughout my tank.

 

[ichthyogeek]

Not sure you can make a tiger pistol happy confined to just a 6"x3" space to dig. My tiger pistols constantly dig and rehome throughout my tank.

I just edited the post because I forgot that tiger pistols (A. bellulus) and candy cane pistols (A. randalli) are different. Is it the same for candy cane pistols?

Also...#admin ( @Daniel@R2R ), can I get a change to the title from "Tiger Pistol not burrowing" to "Candy Cane Pistol not burrowing" please?

 

[Cell]

Oh sorry, not sure about candy canes. They are a bit smaller so maybe they aren't quite as nomadic, but I'd still be weary of trying to get them to be happy wherever I decided to put their tray.

 

[Saltyreef]

I had a CC pistol shrimp hang out up on the frag racks....but that was only after i got a snowflake eel.
I feel bad he ended up as eel cocktail eventually

Any other preditors or clashing species dwelling in the sand?

Does he have a goby friend?

 

[ThePurple12]

It must just not be happy with the space you provided. I think pistol shrimp need full sandbeds to really thrive and do their thing. I kept a tiger once, but no Randalli. I'd assume they behave the same.

 

[ichthyogeek]

I had a CC pistol shrimp hang out up on the frag racks....but that was only after i got a snowflake eel.
I feel bad he ended up as eel cocktail eventually

Any other preditors or clashing species dwelling in the sand?

Does he have a goby friend?

The only thing that's been in the tank has been molly fry. The population recently got reduced from 75 to 10 due to culling and taking the culls to the fish store. I might add some firefish into the tank since I'm figuring out how to move tanks around and such, but I don't really work with predator/larger fish.

As for gobies, I need to get my hands on some Amblyeleotris randalli, but LiveAquaria is out of stock, and it's the "Phantom Zone" right now so shipping fish is iffy due to holiday shipping....