Embodiments relate to detecting insufficient volume of a fluid aspiration. During aspiration of fluids, a pressure trace is obtained using a pressure transducer. An algorithm is applied to detect short shot (i.e., insufficient aspiration) instances utilizing characteristics of the pressure trace. In addition, the fluid probe geometry may be optimized to improve the accuracy of the detection, and temperature may be obtained to correct the pressure trace to account for fluid viscosity and thereby further improve the accuracy.