Anyone up for a hunt?

[TikiDan]

I have had many sleepless nights and I am tired of IT!!! I moved into a studio apartment about a year ago and every night when the lights go out, it sounds like someone is throwing glass beads at my fish tank! I have had enough. Does anybody want to help me? I have spent way to much time looking at my rocks at 4 in the morning trying to find the culprit. I have built traps out of soda bottles only to catch a few bristleworms, removed my rocks and and searched for hours with no success. Although, on a happy note, I am getting pretty good at rearranging my tank

Anybody up to the challenge? If you catch it, you can have it

 

[pogiboy67]

maybe a mantis?

 

[TikiDan]

Thats kinda what I was thinking, but I cant find it.

 

[Newreeflady]

Yep, probably a mantis. You need to watch the tank to figure out what rock it is in. For me, I figured out what rock it was in my 65g tank and I removed it and did a FW dip which sent the mantis flying out of the rock. Then, I saved the little guy and gave it away on a forum. A lot of people like to keep these, so you should try not to kill it

good luck! They can be a real worry for glass tanks (the smashers anyhow), and in my case I lost a lot of snails and hermits to it.

Angela

 

[TikiDan]

I have lost alot of hermits, snails, a couple of shrimp, and I believe it mutilated my sand star
I cant tell where it is, so have been quarantining some of my rocks, but it doesnt seem to do any good. It still makes noise, and Now, I cant tell which tank its coming from I should have set the tanks up farther apart But my studio is to small.

 

[gfk]

you tried the pint glass standing up against the LR with some bait in it? i guess they can swim out though unlike regular crabs

 

[Qwiv]

Have you looked to see if a snail is climbing in front of a powerhead at night. The flow can cause the shell to rattle against the glass. I had a snail that loved to do that in my Nano. Fixed it by adjusting the flow so that it didn't happen again. He only did it at night when I was trying to sleep. That sound is much more like a bead hitting the tank. The mantis/pistol shrimp is more of a snapping/clicking sound.

 

[bookfish]

I would assume it's a pistol shrimp and a trap made from a coke bottle (cut and invert top) should catch either a pistol or a mantis.

 

[TikiDan]

I thought it was a snail at first, but there is never a snail around when it makes noise. It sounds like it is coming from the bottom of the tank.