life of a pistol shrimp

[bmw]

Three days ago I start hearing a "click" in my reading chair-which is about 2 feet from my tank.
Well, after three days, of click-click-I am pretty sure of a pistol shrimp in my tank.
My question--how, can this be after 9 months? Which is the last time I put any lr in the tank. The small amounts of rock from adding corals were very well inspected and nothing was observed by eye-and even then its been some 3 months since I added even that.
I did, or this board did, identify a pistol shrimp doing the "ant farm" in my sandbed some 8 months ago. but I haven't seen that guy in 6 months and never have heard the clicking at all--And I pretty much read in that chair every night,so it hasn't just snuck up on me.
???
b.

[rshimek]

Hi Bruce,

Here's my guess. I suspect that you got a very small pistol shrimp in your rock, possibly something just post-larval. Many shrimps and shrimp-like crustaceans change the shape of their various appendages as they grow; at each molt the shape of a claw may change for example.

Now, I don't know if the pistol shrimps have such morphological changes, but if they do, perhaps the clicking ability of the claw only develops after a certain number of molts or when the animal reaches a given size.

If such is the case, perhaps your little shrimp has been living and growing in your tank, and finally as passed the size threshold for clicking.

Could be, I suspect.

[Guy]

I have no training in the maturation of pistol shrimp other than direct observation.

My rock contained at least a dozen of 1 cm green pistol shrimp. They looked similar other than their "pistol" claw was rounded instead of flat. The claw was also HUGE compared the the rest of the shrimp. It appeared that the claw comprised at least 1/3 of its body mass.

No clicking, other than that attributed to my adult shrimp, was heard for about three months. The smaller shrimp are now about an inch long and are assuming the coloration of the adult. Interestingly, the clicking of smaller shrimp is just as loud as the 4" adult.

Only the large shrimp has paired up with a goby. This could be due to not having any young gobies to pair with, but I only have access to moderate sized gobies.

HTH

[rshimek]

Hi Guy,

Not all pistol shrimps will pair with gobies, some are solitary, and at least one species has recently found to be as "social" as the social insects like ants or bees.

Lotta variety in the group, and a lot of neat behavior.

Savor them... :D

[Guy]

Thank you for the additional information Dr. Ron. I do savor them! My wife and I spend hours watching "Pistol Pete" and his buddy "Radar" the Antenna goby. They are facinating and very comical to watch. I will spare you details as I could rant for days about them.

Thank you again,

Guy