Pistol shrimp digging

[donf]

I have a caribean pistol shrimp hitch-hiker that came with my LR.com shipment. As of late it has gotten much bigger and is really digging up my sand bed under and around the live rock. It appears he is tunneling under all the base LR and he is pushing around piles of sand. Is it a problem that he is stiring up the sand bed?

[austinsdad]

Shouldn't be a problem. What kind of substrate and what depth? How old is the tank and has the sand been moved/stirred before you got the shrimp?

Also be sure to puch the rocks down into the sand so that when he does tunnel, no rocks'll fall over. Also, I keep a long wooden dowel handy so that when his sand pile gets too big, I can push them back. Gives him something to do.

[donf]

Thank you for the reply.
The tank has been up for almost 4 months. The LR that the shrimp hitch-hiked on was introduced to the tank at that time to start the cycle.
The tank size 46 gallon bow front. I started with 50lbs of live sand. I believe the sand bed is at least 2 inches.

There was no movement of sand until about 4 weeks ago when large piles started accumulating... then I finally saw the pistol shrimp one night doing his work. I have left his piles be... but I plan on smoothing things back out. It appears he is making a network of tunnels around the base of the different large LR pcs.

What does this pistol shrimp eat?

[austinsdad]

Mine eats sinking pellets.

[MT79]

What does this pistol shrimp eat?

It will get what it needs from leftovers when feding the fish, and what it comes across in the LS/LR. I've had one for almost 2 years, and I very rarely see it eat. FWIW you can target feed it, just place a small piece of meaty food near the entrance of one of it's burrows. The pistol shrimp should quickly sense the food and grab it.

I have left his piles be... but I plan on smoothing things back out

Your not going to win! The pistol will continue to keep what burrows it has established open, despite your best efforts IME. HTH

[donf]

thanks