Too many Pistol Shimp?

[fireman26m]

Ok....I bought a pistol for my yellow watchman goby a few months ago (and they have completely ignored each other). The shrimp is about 3" long. Hear the usual popping from the tank. Recently, noticed more than usual popping sounds....and from diff areas of the tank. So, after some investigation consisting of staring at the tank I see nothing. I decided to rearrage two corals on the bottom of the tank and when I moved a rock there was another pistol....only about 1/2" long going into the LR. Ok...solves the multiple popping thing right? Nope...staring at the tank again and now I hear popping from the left side (big pistol I bought), middle (newly discovered pistol) and fainter popping from the right side.

Did my pistol have babies or did I inherit the extras from LR that came with corals I've bought over the past few months?

The big pistol is getting to be a pain with his excavating.....in one night he relocated so much sand that my substate looks VERY uneven and on one side of the tank.....I tick him off when I push it back....lol.

 

[quarryshark]

Probably came on your LR. I got 4 f them on mine.
If they are a pain, you can try and catch them......good luck. 8)
Your LFS would probably be happy to take them.

 

[Gatorfreak]

If you got your LR from LiveRocks.com, you probably got them with the rock. I recently bought 60# LR from them and got at least 10 pistol shrimp. All that I've seen have been 1/2" or smaller.

 

[fireman26m]

It's sounding like the 4th of July in my living room

 

[quarryshark]

It's sounding like the 4th of July in my living room

LOL They have made me jump a time or 2.

 

[Phyl]

Could somebody describe a pistol shrimp? I have 2 little shrimp that I've seen in my tank but they don't look like they could possibly be the source of the popping that I've heard! The two I have are very small (1/4"?) and almost translucent.

Sorry to jump in and Hijack your thread but all this convo has me wondering if that's what I've seen in my tank or if the pistols are better at hiding than these other two.

Phyllis

 

[quarryshark]

Can you grab a pic of them? I know....tough thing to do. Did you get them on your live rock?
Pistols are good at hiding. I have only seen one of mine once since they went in. I hear them all the time though.

 

[RocketSeason]

I have a few. 2 or 3. I like em!

Phyl, Pistols look like a normal shrimp except that they have one very large claw and one small claw. Color may vary.

 

[Heineken]

The pops are that loud that they can startle you?? woah. That's crazy, and kinda funny too!!

 

[RocketSeason]

the popping is suprisingly loud. I was a little suprised the first time I heard it. Its amazing that something so small can make such a loud sound inside a tank filled with water!

 

[quarryshark]

Yes it is loud. When I first got my rock in, I extracted my pistol from the rock and had them in a little plastic container. This container was sitting on the kitchen counter and the shrimp were way less than a inch long. My wife and I were startled how loud they popped in the container. You could hear them over the TV in the next room.
BTW, we did end up putting them in the tank.

 

[fireman26m]

I've got one double barreled pistol....both claws are the same size and huge! He's popped at me a few times while messing around in the tank.

 

[tee78]

I thought I had a mantis, because I kept hearing popping noises in my tank. I made a DIY mantis trap one night, and in the morning I found 3 pistols shrimps, in the trap. They were all a little less than a 1/2 inch. They didn't make any popping noises when I had them out in a container. I kept them, and I hear them every night, but I never see them.