Pistol Shrimp Armed Robbery

[Tnops]

Hello everyone, I woke up today to my pistol shrimp holding me at gunpoint and its goby friend watching for any signs of the police. If only that is what happened. I am pretty anxious about my tiger pistol and ywg pair as they have stole a few frags I have placed on both the sandbed and rockwork and I speculate that they will cause more mess as time goes on. Don't get me wrong, they are great when they are doing their own thing other than messing with the corals. What is the best thing I can do about this? They are impossible to catch in my system as there are giant rock structures they are hiding under, I have tried to lure the pistol into between tweezers but haven't worked out. I have heard that putting frag plugs or shells near their den will deter them from using your actual frags. I would like to have more corals on the sandbed so please help give me suggestions for what to do!

 

[JGT]

Glue the frag to a decent sized rock and then place on the sandbed. Also keep it away from the main structure. They don’t like to go out in the open.

 

[Tnops]

Glue the frag to a decent sized rock and then place on the sandbed. Also keep it away from the main structure. They don’t like to go out in the open.

That actually seems like a pretty clever solution! Any drawbacks to this method? (except once you have so many corals you just don't want to glue them all to rocks on sand)

 

[\m/reefsnmetal\m/]

If you're talking temporary placement there are magnetic small frag racks you can get. Gluing the frag to a rock works too. Sometimes if I'm lazy I just place the frag as far away from the den as possible out in the open.

 

[dvgyfresh]

Get some extra shells / small decor , give them something else to steal lol , my mantis likes to steal half clam shells and use as a door for his caves

 

[JGT]

That actually seems like a pretty clever solution! Any drawbacks to this method? (except once you have so many corals you just don't want to glue them all to rocks on sand)

No, it works pretty well. They can’t move what they can’t lift. I’ve done it with Zoas. Glued several frags to a long, thin piece of live rock and now they stay put. They also then have room to spread onto the rock. Otherwise, the pistols are a PITA.

 

[aggrofish]

I dont normally put coral on the sand bed but my pistol and YWG dont venture far from home. I'm pretty sure the pistol shrimp has an appetite for my CUC based on the empty shells