Snapping Shrimp and Small Shrimp?

[Northwest_Scapes_]

So I've heard that Snapping Shrimp at night like to hunt small shrimp, but I didn't see any examples of what they'll go after. Would they only go after the shrimp if they're not well fed? And will they be comfortable with Shrimp around 1 1/2 inches?

 

[Tired]

What pistol shrimp species are you looking at? Tiger pistol shrimp are generally not very aggressive. Candycane pistol shrimp are smaller and even less so. They both kill worms and maybe the occasional amphipod to eat, not shrimp. That one nature show that has the video of a pistol shrimp killing a cleaner shrimp is incredibly overdramatic and quite possibly staged, as pistol shrimp mostly use their snapping claw to scare predators away, not to kill things with the snap.

 

[Northwest_Scapes_]

What pistol shrimp species are you looking at? Tiger pistol shrimp are generally not very aggressive. Candycane pistol shrimp are smaller and even less so. They both kill worms and maybe the occasional amphipod to eat, not shrimp. That one nature show that has the video of a pistol shrimp killing a cleaner shrimp is incredibly overdramatic and quite possibly staged, as pistol shrimp mostly use their snapping claw to scare predators away, not to kill things with the snap.

Ah, im looking at the candy cane pistol. Ive never kept them before so I guess I fell for some false info. By the way, when talking about worms, would Feather Dusters be included in the "they'll kill them" group?

 

[Tired]

Nah. They don't kill every worm they see, either. They'll just occasionally kill and eat a small crawling worm that's in their burrow, like the little scavenging worms you see now and then. Maybe a baby bristleworm sometimes. They don't eat enough to put a dent in anything's population. I think pistols are mostly detritivores?

They aren't dangerous to your tank's inhabitants most of the time. If something else crammed itself into the burrow and harassed it, the pistol might eventually do some damage shooting at it. They won't come out and go after cleaners or anything. I guess a starving one might eventually? But a starving anything will do something drastic.

Make sure to give it lots of bits of stuff. Break up some clam shells into little pieces and scatter those around wherever it sets up shop, that sort of thing. Pistol shrimp love to build with small supports they can use to shore up their tunnels, and are surprisingly strong. It's amazing to watch. They're almost completely blind, but can build by touch.

 

[Northwest_Scapes_]

Nah. They don't kill every worm they see, either. They'll just occasionally kill and eat a small crawling worm that's in their burrow, like the little scavenging worms you see now and then. Maybe a baby bristleworm sometimes. They don't eat enough to put a dent in anything's population. I think pistols are mostly detritivores?

They aren't dangerous to your tank's inhabitants most of the time. If something else crammed itself into the burrow and harassed it, the pistol might eventually do some damage shooting at it. They won't come out and go after cleaners or anything. I guess a starving one might eventually? But a starving anything will do something drastic.

Make sure to give it lots of bits of stuff. Break up some clam shells into little pieces and scatter those around wherever it sets up shop, that sort of thing. Pistol shrimp love to build with small supports they can use to shore up their tunnels, and are surprisingly strong. It's amazing to watch. They're almost completely blind, but can build by touch.

Thank you! i've never kept them before, and this new nano tank I'm building I thought they would be the perfect centerpiece with a goby

 

[Tired]

They are perfect. Just be sure to set your rocks on the bottom of the tank, not on top of the sand, so they don't shift as the shrimp burrows.

Consider making the shrimp a nice spot to start with. Make a little tunnel going underneath a rock, scatter lots of shell bits around that area, and use a cup or net to put the shrimp directly into that spot. If you put the spot somewhere nice and visible, and the shrimp likes it, hopefully the shrimp will have a nice, visible burrow entrance. They like areas with a lot of rockwork they can go underneath, like something lying flat or nearly flat on the sandbed. A big clam shell, propped up just enough to let the shrimp underneath, would also be a great start if you could make it look nice.

Also, just a tip, you don't need to quote the person you're responding to if they're right above you. Quotes are great for when the post is far above yours, isn't the first post, or it's otherwise unclear who you're responding to, but in this circumstance it's not needed and just makes things a bit taller.

 

[ThePurple12]

Considering that they've been known to hunt down and kill mantis shrimp (CORAL magazine), I wouldn't rule it out...

 

[Tired]

If that's something that candycanes will do, I'd think it's more likely because of a territorial dispute, or possibly them finding each other and fighting, than for food. A mantis shrimp is a large, dangerous animal compared to a pistol shrimp, and animals generally don't go after large, dangerous things for food unless they have no other options.

Now, bullseye pistol shrimp are more aggressive, and don't pair with gobies. Those will try and kill small shrimp sometimes.

 

[ThePurple12]

Yeah, you're probably right in that it's a territorial dispute. The article said they could also be doing it to protect the goby. I don't remember which species of pistol it was, but I know it was one of the goby-pairing ones. I think tiger.

 

[Tired]

I'd certainly buy that a mantis shrimp going into a tiger pistol's burrow would be in danger. A cleaner shrimp in the burrow would probably be in danger, too. It's just that cleaner shrimp don't go into pistol shrimp burrows. Near them, maybe, but pistols don't get nearly as upset about something at the entrance of the burrow. They get really, really upset (and you'll hear the snapping!) at intruders IN the burrow.

Oh, that's one thing about pistol shrimp. You can hear the snapping. I kept a candycane pistol by my bed and it didn't wake me up, they aren't too loud, but it can be a little alarming at first. It sounds like a tiny cap pistol going off.

 

[ThePurple12]

I'll see if I can find the article, it was pretty interesting

 

[ThePurple12]

Here we go:

"One observation has now reinforced this particularly clearly: I obtained a splendid mantis shrimp, a young Odontodactylus scyllarus barely 4 inches long, from a colleague. As soon as it was introduced, it bolted like lightning among some loose fragments of coral and tried to disappear into a crevice. At the same moment, the significantly smaller Alpheus pistol shrimp, resident in the tank for years, came rushing up to the larger, well-armed mantis shrimp (literally like a bullet from a gun) cracking and stirring up sediment. It had obviously noticed the intruder- this was not a chance encounter. It all happened faster than the eye could register: in a split second, the mantis shrimp was seriously injured, floating belly-up and motionless in the current, and disentegrated into two pieces when I made haste to rescue it. A truly macabre, albeit impressive, execution, which gave me pause for thought."

Sorry to derail the thread, just thought this was worth sharing!

 

[Tired]

Doesn't appear to have posted.

 

[ThePurple12]

Sorry, I just fixed it

 

[Tired]

Wow, that's one heck of a response. I wonder if it might be a bit exaggerated, though- not sure pistol shrimp have the firepower to make a 3-4" mantis into two pieces. I've see them shoot at large bristleworms and not kill the worm.

I suppose a pistol could do some serious damage to a mantis, if it got at the underbelly. But if they had the firepower to easily kill a larger shrimp, you'd think they'd do it more often. I'd expect everybody who put a cleaner shrimp and pistol together to have the pistol kill and eat the cleaner- that's so much food! But that doesn't happen. Pistol shrimp aren't inevitable murderers of other shrimp. Since most shrimp are opportunists, the fact that they don't kill other shrimp for food on a regular basis makes me think they probably can't.

And a response like what they're describing definitely sounds like it wasn't just for food. It makes sense that pistol shrimp might have a strong instinctive reaction to mantis shrimp, since mantis shrimp would probably try to take over pistol burrows that they found. I would be very curious to hear about people potentially adding water from a mantis shrimp's shipment bag to an aquarium with a pistol shrimp, to see if the pistol reacts to the smell.

 

[ThePurple12]

You're definitely right, in that the shrimp wasn't looking for food. I think the reason shrimp don't hunt other shrimp is that leaving the burrow to hunt one down would be too risky to either the pistol shrimp or to the goby. People also say pistol shrimp have poor vision, which might explain it.