Shrimp/Goby Woes!

Okay, Blue Spotted Yellow Watchman Goby, Tiger Pistol Shrimp.

Living in the tank for I dunno 3 or 4 months now, NEVER see the goby... he never poked his head out of the hole (if you took a flashlight and shined it in the hole you would see the gobies face protecting his borrow though). The two were never seperated.

Over time, the Pistol dug too large a hole under one rock, and it sunk. Yesterday I lifted the rock a good inch or so, the sand fell inward, and the rock is back in its original state.

Yesterday night, I watched with a flashlight as the goby emerged fully and the tiger Pistol was out rebuilding that section of his tunnels.

This morning I awoke to find the Goby still out. It looks like the Shrimp 'closed the front door' on the goby, as their front door hole is still there, but looks too small for the goby to get in.

Question is this: Will the two re-pair on their own in a day or so, or will they require 'coaxing', ie shooing the goby over to the shrimp hole or something?

The Starry Blenny seems to dislike the Goby and is picking on him, I assume because their both 'bottom dwellers'...

 

Yes they should find each other again, without difficulty if this is not a large system and they stay in the general area.

Your right the blenny is probably having some issues with the goby being out and about. Hopefully the goby and pistol will reunite soon and things will again go back to normal.

 

Should be fine.
My pistol evicted my YWG for a few days, the poor thing acted very odd hanging out at the top of the tank and lost color wasn't even afraid of my fingers (I hand feed a few fish, the ones that will) then all was back to normal.
I think the pistol had molted though.

 

Well by last night, the Goby looked all shoddy... most all his fins were torn up (they were fine yesterday morning!) and he looked like he had a 'bruise' or two on his side...

Looks like the little 2.5 inch watchamn goby got the crap beat out of him by the 5 inch starry blenny all day.

But, as of this morning, he is back in the burrow with the shrimp... and their keeping their hole closed most all the way.

I doubt the watchman is going to want to go out on exploration again anytime soon.

Least he lived to tell the tale of his exiting[ly crappy] day out of the burrow.

 

Poor thing. My starry blenny was a big jerk to everyone in the tank so he got sent back to the LFS.

 

The starry ignores everything else in the tank... just the the one watchman goby in the tank he'll apparently go after.

It was funny though, when my mandarin was in a nook that the blenny likes a lot, and without looking the blenny just darted into the same nook... it was funny watching both of them 'run' away from each other after being suddenly squished together...

 

Moved to the Tropical Fish forum. Please only use the ASAP forum for true emergencies. Thanks!