Can't deny clicking in tank any longer

M

MikeG

Premium Member
Ok, I've been hearing "clicking" from my tank since first month of setup, which is now 7 months old. I was in denial in thinking it was coming from a beige hairy crab that I finally removed last week. But still clicking. The only other crab, that I have seen, is one that has modified legs in front, that appear he uses as filters, much like a barnicle does.

Anyway, I have never seen a mantis, but a small blennie went missing three days after intro, and now a suspect a firefish that I have had for six months. What do you think? Do I have a mantis or is my dream world alive?

Thanks in advance,
Mike :confused:
 
I suggest you take an old flashlight and put red celefane over the light to give it a red filter. This is used to examine inhabitants without them being scared back into caves, sand, etc. Hopefully you will see the mantis out and about. Follow him back to his cave and then you got several choices.

1. take the rock out and manually get him out.

2. Buy a commercial trap and use that to get him out.

3. Make yourself a trap yourself...search for them on search and you'll find many.



hth
 
Most gonodactylid smashers that might live in live rock are strictly diurnal. If you are hearing the clicking after the lights are off, it is probably a snapping shrimp and not a mantis shrimp. (Echinosquilla is one of the few exceptions and they are very rare in live rock.)

Also, all gonodactylids have excellent color vision and see in the red and far red as well as we do. There is no reason to use a red light to try to watch them. I dimmer white light will do just as well. It is the intensity of the light, not the wave length, that is causing them to retreat.

Roy
 
Thanks for the replies.

I do hear clicking 24/7 but it does increase at night.

One follow-up please: I returned from work today to see a nice chunk missing from my derasa's mantle. The only fish I have are a PBT and two firefish. Do mantis feed on clams?

Thanks,
Mike
 
I've seen large smashers such as O. sycllarus and G. chiragra chip away at a clam, but this would be unusual.

Given the snapping at night, I strongly suspect that you have one or more snapping shrimp. That doesn't mean that you don't also have a stomatopod, but if it is dark and 3 a.m and making noise, it is very unlikely to be a mantis shrimp.

Roy
 
Gonodactylus: Assuming it is a snapping shrimp, are you aware if they attack/feed on clams?

thanks,
Mike
 
ok, I've got to jump in on this one too now...
I've been trying to rid my tank of a supposed mantis problem for 2 years now, since when I put the LR in. The LR is from Tampa Bay Salt Water so what ever it is has got to be from the gulf. Over the past few years I've extracted two smashers (both around 2 inches) and then yesterday I found and removed a snapping shrimp (about an inch). I can't tell you the number of things I've lost to these popping devils, in the beginning it was just a few fish, but once they were all gone they moved onto the clams and oysters in the live rock and then my snails (Hundreds of them!!!) So here's what I'm after, what is the most likely suspect? I hear popping in the tank usually during the day, maybe once every half hour or so. This could continue at night but I don't usually hang around the tank after the lights go out so I don't know. If it's just at snapping shrimp, how much damage can they do? Am I safe with one of them, to once again add fish to the system?
Brian
 
Well as I'm sure you're well aware, it's really difficult to get these guys out. I tried the snap traps and make your own coke bottle traps and fishing for them, none of which worked. For the first one I tracked him back to one rock and made sure he was in it, took the rock out and sat it over a bucket of fresh, cold water. Over the course of an hour I just kept flushing the holes in the rock with fresh H2O till eventually he fell out (big smasher). The second one I did much the same way but he was in a rock that was at the base of my reef so removing it wasn't an option so I waited with a pair of tweezers at the entrance to his layer and eventually (after nearly an hour of waiting and thousands of attempts) I managed to pull him out kicking and popping all the way (looked like a peacock mantis either way he was huge about 2 or more inches, and very aggressive). This last one was found quite by luck, I was rearranging my tank and had removed a few pieces of live rock from the tank for a few min. When I went to put them back, there was a snapping shrimp squirming around on the carpet!
Brian
 
Ya as I said I was extremely lucky. You know it's a very extreme solution and most likely will cause more trouble than it's worth, but you could always get yourself an octopus. That'd solve your problem with the mantis. (I'm just kidding round, an octo really should have it's own tank and certainly shouldn't be treated in such a light manner ;)
Brian
 
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