a mantis in my tank or wishful thinking?

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.
 
I thought of another question

I thought of another question

Speaking of night vision googles, I have some B&W video camers that are kind of IR sensitive. Could I wire up a bunch of IR LEDS, light up the tank, and not scare whatever it is I have?
 
Wallyllama -

Aquacultured FL rock... I'm guessing TBS or GulfView? What you had/have is Neogonodactylus Wennerae. Most likely, that is. I got one in my 50lbs from TBS, and my friend got one.

These mantis are strictly diurnal. They do not click, hunt, or anything else at night. Also, they eat their molt to help regrow their exoskeleton, usually while they are hiding. I've never seen mine molt, he always hides for a week.

Sadly, my guess is that your shrimp is dead. Clicking at night, especially from Floriday rock, is pistol shrimp.

HTH.

S !
 
Thanks for the info Python

Thanks for the info Python

You confirmed many of my suscpicions. I did see pictures of N. Wennerae that looked a lot like what I had. I really didn't think that my original guy was still alive

I'll have to study up on pistols. I'm still wondering where it came from. That tank was quiet for a year, and I can't think of anything I've added that would explain how it got there. hmmm...
 
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