Goby / Pistol Shimp - is this cool behavior common?

[bh750]

So I've got a pair of red fin gobies living with a pistol shrimp. Anyway too me a long time to confirm this but now I'm sure it's happening.

I feed them. Only the one goby ever really comes out. I was even Afraid the other one and the shrimp were dead. Nope they're alive! So when I feed them pellets the one goby comes out, grabs one in his mouth, then turns and drops it into the hole for the others. I was so amazed once I realized what was happening.

Is this common? Anyone else ever see this.

He'll actually eat the first few himself. But then will start dropping them into the hole for the other two in his "family".

 

[Andy G]

So I've got a pair of red fin gobies living with a pistol shrimp. Anyway too me a long time to confirm this but now I'm sure it's happening.

I feed them. Only the one goby ever really comes out. I was even Afraid the other one and the shrimp were dead. Nope they're alive! So when I feed them pellets the one goby comes out, grabs one in his mouth, then turns and drops it into the hole for the others. I was so amazed once I realized what was happening.

Is this common? Anyone else ever see this.

He'll actually eat the first few himself. But then will start dropping them into the hole for the other two in his "family".

Now i understand... same thing happens to me. I see one everyday, and maybe the other once a week. I've seen the piston twice.

Now this week both gobies came out of the same cave at the same time, look at the picture.

 

[ngoodermuth]

Yep, it's part of the symbiotic relationship...pretty neat.

Similar to clownfish feeding their host anemone. My clarki doesn't have a nem, but when I feed he eats, and then starts dropping food into his imaginary-friend cave lol

Or, maybe he just likes to hoard the leftovers [emoji23]

 

[bh750]

Wow so cool. Thanks for confirming! Love stuff like this about our tanks.

 

[ShaunRobinson]

Fantastic to watch. As above they share a symbiotic relationship, the shrimp is the homemaker providing a safe burrow for the gobies while they go out shopping for food!

 

[Andy G]

Found the female out of the cave having trouble breathing, and fins were bitten.

A few hours later she was laying down in the sand and others fish were biting her rear fin. I thought she was dead hence tried to pull it out, quickly moved inside the rocks.

Haven't seen her or the male, or the shirmp in 4 days.

By the way she looks i thinks she died between the rocks.

I don't know what happened.

The only thing i did differently is target feed food directly into the cave hole, as I'm significantly diminishing my feeding and wanted to make sure they had something to eat.

Any thoughts?