Pistol shrimp

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I found a pistol shrimp in my tank, do I keep it or not?

I only have a glass shrimp, some hermits, snails, etc. No fish yet. He is only about 1.5 to 2cm long but he seems to be clicking at my glass shrimp when he goes near the rock that the pistol is under....

BTW I think he may have been in there for a couple weeks already, I only noticed him after I added the glass shrimp at the weekend.
 
Oh dear, if im not mistaken pistol shrimps are the same as mantis shrimps right? or similar? They make really good pets when kept in a suitable tank but their diet is usually other crustaceans like shrimps and crabs, they are also known to be the reason why some small fishies disappear so to keep him or not is a personal choice but beware of the concequences.
Big matis's have been known to shatter aquarium glass :)
 
deadmeat, no they are not the same, this is the pistol or snapping shrimp:

[ame]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpheidae[/ame]

and this is the demonic Mantis

[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantis_shrimp"]Mantis shrimp - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia@@AMEPARAM@@/wiki/File:Mantis_shrimp_from_front.jpg" class="image"><img alt="" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/eb/Mantis_shrimp_from_front.jpg/220px-Mantis_shrimp_from_front.jpg"@@AMEPARAM@@commons/thumb/e/eb/Mantis_shrimp_from_front.jpg/220px-Mantis_shrimp_from_front.jpg[/ame]
 
Depends on the pistol. Some of the spp actually pair with gobies... This is one of the most awesome nano setups imo....

Pistol Shrimp & Gobies: A Safe Alliance

How to Start a Pistol Shrimp/Goby Pair | eHow.com

a-symbiotic-goby-shrimp.jpg


They arent as bad as mantis shrimp, but still not a great idea if you have a tank with fish other than gobies especially smaller fish.
 
Thanks MND123, ive learnt somthin today, but they still look like a bit of a monster, can they be as bad as matis shrimps? skunk cleaners are obviously a no no, poor cleaner in the vid
 
ps: don't insult my mantis shrimp by calling him a pistol shrimp!!! ;-) Completely different order of animals (literally, mantis shrimps are an order known as stomatopoda) and about a zillion times more awesome, intelligent and cool. fact.

;-)
 
ps: don't insult my mantis shrimp by calling him a pistol shrimp!!! ;-) Completely different order of animals (literally, mantis shrimps are an order known as stomatopoda) and about a zillion times more awesome, intelligent and cool. fact.

;-)

My bad, but i agree, they are clever buggers :)
 
mine looks like this
17284bab4f06111cc.jpg


I stole the pic off manics thread, hope you don't mind:p, this thing is too shy to get a pic, all you see is a little glimpse now and then.

I still don't know what to do. He has dug burrows under almost all my LR, but seems to have settled in one corner now. My glass shrimp seems to have moved to the other side of the tank so maybe he will be safe. As I said before no fish yet but should I leave him for now and get rid of him when I start to put fish in or get rid of him now? It looks like he may have molted, I found some skeleton legs that look about his size. How fast do they grow?
 
bottom line is they arent a great idea if you have other inverts and shrimp. But some of them are goby-friendly.

Here in SA, everybody seems to have a problem with pistols. In Germany the people want them. There are many different species which makes it a bit difficult to tell, which ones are good and which ones are bad. There are species that live together with anemones and therenare species that live together with gobies. These ones are a pleasure to have.

The most important question here is, what is the glass thickness of the tank, where the pistol shrimp is in!
 
I had one in my tank for a number of years, without it causing any observable problems (fish disappearing, etc.), apart from frightening my wife with it's clicking :). In the end, though, my lionfish grew large enough, and ate it.

IMHO most aquarium fish are too large for the shrimp to do serious damage to, and if the aquarium glass is thick enough (mine is 12mm) that should be safe as well. Obviously, the natural prey (small fish, other shrimps, small snails, 'pods, etc.) won't be safe, and if you have a large "shrimp predator" then the shrimp won't be safe...

Hennie
 
I found a pistol shrimp in my tank, do I keep it or not?

I only have a glass shrimp, some hermits, snails, etc. No fish yet. He is only about 1.5 to 2cm long but he seems to be clicking at my glass shrimp when he goes near the rock that the pistol is under....

BTW I think he may have been in there for a couple weeks already, I only noticed him after I added the glass shrimp at the weekend.


How thick is your glass?
 
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