wallyllama
New member
My tank has been running for about two years, and it has been almost that long since I added any live rock. I have addes some fish, otherwise what is in the tank came from the rock. I pulled three mantis out of the rock almost right away. After that my main tank was quiet, no clicking. Two of the shrimp died fairly quickly (most likely my fault). The third survived until about a year ago. Some friends wanted to see him and he had been hiding for a few days. I lifted his rock, and there he was not moving. After about a week I moved his rock to my main tank. A few days after that I thought I heard faint clicking in the tank, but I figured I was just missing click (yes, I named my mantis shrimp click). I occasionally thought I heard a click after that, but I could never be sure, and I'm still not sure, BUT, for about the last month I have been hearing a click, loud and clear. I have to replenish my hermits and snails every so often, and I have notices a pile of sand that has been pushed out from under a rock.
other information that might be important:
The rock is aquacultured from southern florida.
There were crabs and other things living in the rock when I got it. I rarely saw them and haven't seen them in quite a while.
I think click and the others were gonodactylids, definitely they were smashers. click was about 3-4 cm long.
The clicking is amost strictly nocturnal. as opposed to Click who was a morning and evening clicker.
It is single clicks a few minutes apart, it seemed like click would occasionally click a few times in a row.
The only things I have added to the tank since putting the rock in are fish, food, brine shrimp, hermit crabs, and snails.
My questions:
I have seen molted skin from actual shrimps and they look a lot like dead shrimps, but there is a crack where the shrimp got out, so is it possible that what I thought was clicks body was a molted skin? It looked just like him and was about the same color. I didn't see any cracks in it where he could have slipped out of, but I didn't cut it open to look.
Are mantis shrimp nocturnal?
Could this be something else that was in the rocks and has finally matured?
I know the only way to really answer the question is to actually find the creature. The hard part is it seems to only be active at night when I turn off the lights, and I am out of night vision goggles.
other information that might be important:
The rock is aquacultured from southern florida.
There were crabs and other things living in the rock when I got it. I rarely saw them and haven't seen them in quite a while.
I think click and the others were gonodactylids, definitely they were smashers. click was about 3-4 cm long.
The clicking is amost strictly nocturnal. as opposed to Click who was a morning and evening clicker.
It is single clicks a few minutes apart, it seemed like click would occasionally click a few times in a row.
The only things I have added to the tank since putting the rock in are fish, food, brine shrimp, hermit crabs, and snails.
My questions:
I have seen molted skin from actual shrimps and they look a lot like dead shrimps, but there is a crack where the shrimp got out, so is it possible that what I thought was clicks body was a molted skin? It looked just like him and was about the same color. I didn't see any cracks in it where he could have slipped out of, but I didn't cut it open to look.
Are mantis shrimp nocturnal?
Could this be something else that was in the rocks and has finally matured?
I know the only way to really answer the question is to actually find the creature. The hard part is it seems to only be active at night when I turn off the lights, and I am out of night vision goggles.