To Catch a Killer… Pistol Shrimp Eradication

[BrittneyC]

Did you ever get him out? I have been trying to remove the one that hitch hiked a year ago into my tank lately and have had no luck.

 

[AlaskaMatt]

Did you ever get him out? I have been trying to remove the one that hitch hiked a year ago into my tank lately and have had no luck.

No unfortunately not, I ended up pulling all the rocks out of my tank and putting them into buckets -- putting the upper scape in a separate bucket and pulling each of the rocks that had contact with the sand of the tank and inspecting them. I took them out one by one and I finished with the rock I suspected him to be in. I ended up pouring seltzer water into the holes and shaking the rock off in saltwater. I did this with one other rock after he wasn't found in the first. While I didn't find him I was able to locate several more gorilla grabs (4 or 5). Lo and behold not even the next day I see a 1-inch pistol shrimp out on the sand bed before he bolted back under the rockwork.

At this point I'm just going to wait him out -- maybe in a couple of months or a year when he's bigger I can make a second attempt and get him with a mantis trap or something similar. I've been able to add fish now without issues and I believe my original perpetrator was a rogue gorilla grab that was able to catch my tailspot blenny.

 

[AlaskaMatt]

I ended up leaving him alone and all was fine and dandy — until today. Turns out I have yet another hitchhiker!

A baby mantis shrimp! he must be getting hungry as I’ve seen him out a lot today.

I had him trapped in a rock but he ducked and weaved and evaded capture. Should have immediately pulled it out but I didn’t have a good spot to set the rock down and was thinking too long about it and he was quick.

now that I know his home I might try and trap him again.