Tiger or Randall's pistol shrimp?

[Common Blevil]

3 days ago i bought a wheeler's goby, and he seems VERY skittish. In the LFS he was sitting with 2 tiger pistol shrimps for a long time, but then was swapped with YWG and put in another tank next to it, sat there for maybe a few weeks, and then i bought him.

When he was with shrimps he was really outgoing, but without them he is really really shy abd constantly hides, even in LFS. He was really fat in the shop when i bought him, but does not eat in my tank. I hope he will start soon, because my bristle worms will grow into anacondas if i continue putting all that food in the caves the goby resides in.

I'm thinking of getting him a friend and i have a few options - either one of those tiger shrimps, but I don't know if LFS will separate them to sell me one, or one little Randall's shrimp, that is like an inch long(mind you, the goby is 2+).

The problems i have - will goby eat the small Randall's shrimp? And how dangerous actually are tiger shrimps, if i will regularly feed them. Because i got really conflicting information about them, literally in the same thread after eachother went "they are sweet angels" and "they are murderous jerks, i was celebrating when mine died"...

I'm aware about shrimp's tendency to rescape the tank, but I will not mind it and adapt , because the only thing living on the sandbed is 1 conch and 1 hermit. I wanted to get some more action in there and all i got was goby sitting in the caves suffering from depression and occasionally seen out of the caves at night, rethinking his life choices.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

The problems i have - will goby eat the small Randall's shrimp? And how dangerous actually are tiger shrimps, if i will regularly feed them. Because i got really conflicting information about them, literally in the same thread after eachother went "they are sweet angels" and "they are murderous jerks, i was celebrating when mine died"...

I'm not sure on the small Randall's, but with regards to Tiger Pistols and their levels of danger - to my knowledge, the true Tiger Pistol Shrimp is probably safe; false tiger pistol shrimps probably aren't:

Yeah, there are actually quite a few Alpheid shrimp that look superficially similar to the Tiger Pistol Shrimp, Alpheus bellulus (such as A. rugimanus, which I've seen stores starting to sell as Tiger Pistol Shrimp recently) - some of them may not be as peaceful as it is (some Alpheus species are confirmedly not reef-safe, I haven't looked much into how safe ones that may resemble A. bellulus are though).

the Alpheus djeddensis – Alpheus djiboutensis complex; I've seen a bunch of places (at least five or six) selling shrimp from this complex as Tiger Pistol Shrimp, which may explain some of the difference in reported behavior from people. I'm guessing your shrimp is Alpheus sciolii, but I would need very clear, straight-on pics of the head from the top, the tail from the top, the side near where the head and tail sections of the body meet (specifically of the big dark spot) from the side, and the second pair (second from the front specifically) of the walking legs.

Alternatively, if you know specifically which ocean/region of the ocean the shrimp came from, that can also be useful for ID purposes here.

 

[Common Blevil]

but with regards to Tiger Pistols and their levels of danger - to my knowledge, the true Tiger Pistol Shrimp is probably safe; false tiger pistol shrimps probably aren't:

Thanks to this information! I heard something about it before, but only briefly and couldn't find the source. I also noticed that alpheid shrimps that are not belullus do not look like belullus. Like, they have different distinct patterns. So if shrimps in the shop look exactly like true tiger pistol (and from my memory they do) I'm good?

PS: this is the A.belullus coloration that i need?

 

[Common Blevil]

I'm not sure on the small Randall's, but with regards to Tiger Pistols and their levels of danger - to my knowledge, the true Tiger Pistol Shrimp is probably safe; false tiger pistol shrimps probably aren't:

I found the thread you quoted and the shrimp in there(that was on the murder spree) looks totally different from tiger.
It has simple striped appearance and not this distinguished coloration of the tiger.

Again, thank you very much!

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Thanks to this information! I heard something about it before, but only briefly and couldn't find the source. I also noticed that alpheid shrimps that are not belullus do not look like belullus. Like, they have different distinct patterns. So if shrimps in the shop look exactly like true tiger pistol (and from my memory they do) I'm good?

PS: this is the A.belullus coloration that i need?

Yeah, that's the one to look for.

 

[Common Blevil]

Yeah, that's the one to look for.

Believe me or not - they had a "tiger" pistol shrimp that was sitting with small YWG. Felt so proud that i was able to differentiate it from regular tiger!)

They also had a candy cane(Randall's) pistol, so i bought it. Thought the goby ate it, but fortunately they live together now and my goby slowly recovers from his depression)

But he is still dumb and instead of using very convenient cave opening at the front he either watches the back wall of the tank or sits like that