Pistol Shrimp Help

[Cibo]

I was thinking of adding a pistol shrimp to my 24 gall nano I was unsure if it will dig out under my LR and cause a colapse, Has this happen to anyone, Right now I have the shrimp in 8g with some live rock and he is the king of the tank I wanted to move him to my main tank, but dont want cause any problems in my tank???

thanks

 

[marrone]

Pistol Shrimp do dig tunnels under rocks and corals. I don't think any of the tunnels will cause rocks to fall over, unless you have some small rocks or they're position in such a way where they're balancing on each other. Most of the time the tunnel will just collapse and the rock will sink lower. If you have some corals in the rocks they may fall over, if they're not locked in good.

Currently I have 2 pistol shrimp in my 90gal and they dig tunnels and I never had a problem with rocks collapsing. I have one before that in my 58gal and also never had a problem with rocks collapsing either.

What did happen was in areas were there weren't any rocks, and just sand, the shrimp dug tunnels underneath and that collapsed, taking with it some zoa's.

 

[1QuickSubaru]

i have a pistol shrimp that has a bunch of tunnels under the rocks but he hasnt caused a colapse or anyother problems....

 

[SIReefer]

I had a 2" PS in my 55 w/no problems. I also have a smaller one in my 75 gal. The pistol shrimps don't seem to build an elaborate tunnel network that would compromise the integrity of the reef structure. My experience is that they build a small den and maintain it rather than branch out and keep expanding. I have jawfish and engineer gobies and they dig like mad. I have an extensive tunnel network complements of these two types of fish. On my latest tank I aquascaped the live rock directly on the glass and then placed the sand in the tank. No matter how much digging is done, the rock structures won't be affected. If you can place your live rock on the bottom prior to adding the substrate you should be fine.

 

[masterswimmer]

Pistol shrimp are some of the coolest animals for your tank. I love'em. They've got so much personality.

The warning I would offer is this. If your rockwork is situated such that the bottommost rock is placed directly on the glass bottom and the substrate is laid down around the base of the rocks, the PS won't be able to dig beneath the supporting portions of the rock. This will provide you with the stability you'll need to allow the PS to do his thing.

Conversely, if you place your rockwork on top of the sandbed, then you stand the risk of the rockwork structure becoming compromised and possibly shifting or toppling over.

Russ