Pistol shrimp snapping coral?

[joshnunes]

20g long
stock list: 1 clownfish, 1 tailspot blenny, 1 watchman goby/ candy cane pistol shrimp
We had such a beautiful array of corals that just kept dying off about a month after we got the pistol shrimp.
We never suspected, but I heard the shrimp clicking many many times and I went to look, it pulled down a small kenya tree and was snapping it and destroying it. Theres a teensy nub left but its definitely a goner.
has anyone else ever experienced this? What can I do to save my other corals?

 

[Sharkbait19]

I’ve never heard of them actively destroying corals, though the burrowing activity can irritate or even kill sensitive ones.
Have you seen it actually attack the coral or just a before/after?

 

[907_Reefer]

My Pistol will hoard loose corals frags whole, but I've never caught him cutting them up.. I don't keep any loose, unglued frags anywhere low in the tank and anything that is on the sand bed is glued to a rock he can't move..now.

 

[ryanjohn1]

20g long
stock list: 1 clownfish, 1 tailspot blenny, 1 watchman goby/ candy cane pistol shrimp
We had such a beautiful array of corals that just kept dying off about a month after we got the pistol shrimp.
We never suspected, but I heard the shrimp clicking many many times and I went to look, it pulled down a small kenya tree and was snapping it and destroying it. Theres a teensy nub left but its definitely a goner.
has anyone else ever experienced this? What can I do to save my other corals?

Kenya will grow back from a nub. I cut them all the time. Grows like weeds in my tanks

 

[Stomatopods17]

You sure the kenya didn't just 'drop a branch' and it float into the pistol's home?

Only bad experience I had with a pistol was with an orange plate coral. Not only was it obvious sand would be an issue, but the shrimp actually did snap at it a few times (right after I was done recording too :/ )

It never bothered anything else. They're not aggressive but they do like the dig and anything around their burrow is going to be dug or buried.