surprising find

I wouldn't put him in your display tank unless you understand the nature of certain pistol shrimp. There's the nice pistol shrimp, then there's the not so nice pistol shrimp. Some are capable of breaking glass tanks, others will eat any fish in the same tank...

Do you know what species of pistol shrimp it is? Any pics?

 

Looks like a good deal then! What were the conditions in the tank he was in? Was it heated? Circulated?

I heard from a guy who broke down a tank and had about an inch of water in a 46 gallon tank that he put in his garage. He went to empty the water and clean the tank up about a week later and there was a pistol shrimp still alive in there! Haha, last he knew when he told me this story it was still alive in a friends house!

 

never heard of a pistol shrimp breaking glass and really only two kinds of mantis shrimp have been reported to break glass,cool story and glad it was found.

 

yeah adam pistol shrimp are pretty small, im not sure they could break glass, mantis shrimp, specifically the clown mantis are known glass breakers although its rare.

 

I know i have either a mantis or a pistol in my 75g. i dont have sand in there right now so i know he is sitting directly on the glass as he is snapping and smashing.... sometimes he hits so hard that i wince and wonder if he's gunna break through.. i honestly think he could. i have actually considered killing off my live rock just to rid him for the tank for certain... i cannot catch him and i have never seen him. but i know he's evil.

 

of the mantis shrimp available to us,only the Gonodactylus chiragra and Odontodactylus scyllarus(peacock mantis)which r both smashers, have been known to break glass. the ones people call pests that show up in your live rock are almost always smaller sized mantis that cannot break your glass,so u really don't have to worry!!! i have the Gonodactylus chiragra and plan on getting more mantis shrimp in the future. they are really cool pets and r kind of labeled as monsters,an unfair label in my opinion!

 

I was under the impression that mantis shrimp were pistol shrimp. Sorry for the confusion.

In doing a little bit of searching on the web, a lot of people were talking about pistol shrimps that came in their live rock and are always making their cracking noises. I get those cracking noises all the time, I thought it might be a pistol shrimp, but now I'm pretty sure it is.

Any idea how to find the pistol shrimp if there is one in there?

 

look for a burrow first of all, they are not very big, about 2 inchs is all or about the size of a thumbnail.

 

I don't have sand, I'm running a bare bottom...

 

If you can track down what rock they are in, you can pour carbonated water in it. They don't like that and they'll come rushing out.

 

Yea, but I don't want to have to take the rocks out to get it. It's not causing any problems at the moment...