Pistol Shrimp Question

[goldenhurricane2]

So I had my pistol shrimp and high fin goby paired in my 3 gallon pico for about a year. All was good until the goby decided to jump out... this lead to me deciding to take down the pico and get something a tad bigger (10ish gallons).

Anywho... in the mean time, I got a small breader box to house my pistol shrimp in inside my 55 gallon mixed reef. Long story short, he escaped the box and is not living happily in the 55 gallon.

My concern is that he's going to move A LOT of sand around since that's what he did in the pico. My question is would he be more or less likely to move sand around with or without a goby friend living with him?

 

[Sierra_Bravo]

It's going to dig and burrow no matter what. You may find he moves the entrance around a bit more.

 

[mrwizard421]

Hi pistols are little workers and never stop it may find a nice cave for a while but once the food source gets scarce (amphods and copods ) he’ll move again.. I had a ladder goby and a bullseye pistol in my last tank and they were absolutely hilarious constantly burying the others tunnel until finally the ladder goby never could dig out one morning.. a soon there after ammonia spike confirmed my conclusion the goby was dead.. my best advise is take the sand movement as a joke if not you’ll drive yourself crazy lol. I totally understand your problem lol. Good luck

 

[goldenhurricane2]

So would another high fin or yasha help or hurt?

 

[mrwizard421]

So would another high fin or yasha help or hurt?

Honestly not sure.. but simple thinking leads me to believe another sand mover will most likely move more sand.. in a bigger tank they won’t be forced to bond so they could take up separate territory and move all over lol but remember substrate agitation gets the inanimate ditritous up and moving to be filtered I always keep nazarious snails keeping it moving around also

 

[goldenhurricane2]

Honestly not sure.. but simple thinking leads me to believe another sand mover will most likely move more sand.. in a bigger tank they won’t be forced to bond so they could take up separate territory and move all over lol but remember substrate agitation gets the inanimate ditritous up and moving to be filtered I always keep nazarious snails keeping it moving around also

Thanks - I'm not losing sleep over him moving sand, I just wasn't looking forward to a few corals being covered up with piles of sand that I have on the sandbed. I think I'll just let him be a single bachelor for now and see how it goes.