Help! Removing pistol shrimp safely

[SaltyHandz]

My watchman goby jumped out (I got a new lid from artfully acrylic now), but my lfs gave me a pistol to pair. I have tried to pair him with other goby's but he seemed to make them disapear. As you know they can be a nuisance.

Now my pistol is burrowed under a ton of love rock with set coral all over it. I have set traps and seem to just gather crabs and snails for the pistol to go after. I tried the bottle and box traps you can buy online, but cant seem to stop everything else from jumping in. He is getting extremely loud and fending off others. Id rather give it back to my lfs, Please any tips or ideas would be much appreciatted!

 

[badd]

I cant help much.. but you may end up digging him out.. or keep trapping..and anything that gets caught..goes into a QT ..till only thing left is pistol..lol.. sorry not much help.. but what a pickle..

 

[ahiggins]

I had to do that as well, sucks but thankfully he was in my pico with only a single rock that could come out.

 

[sundog101]

Drop some food in and set a trap by the burrow. He should be out in no time

*Edit: Well if I took the time to read I would have seen you tried that. However I would keep trying with the trap. My pistol shrimp was always the first thing in there... maybe he was just dumb.

 

[SaltyHandz]

Thanks for all the suggestions guys! I guess persistence is the key here. I got close with the bottle trap, so i'll keep trying to see if I can get him. I'll keep you posted!

 

[Lyn Clements]

We have some pistol and or mantis brought in on our live rock. We pulled the rock out and captured two of these guys. They look to be juvenile critters. Spent an hour finding them, only to have more clicking resume when we put the live rock back in the tank. Grrrrrrrrr!