I had 3 conches an absolutely gutted they have all been eaten the moon snail ate the 1st two so sumped it! This morning the last 1 was turned on its back and the foot had been torn off!! Occasionally after lights out I hear a clicking coming from the tank! Could this be a crab or a pistol shrimps doing? I did think mantis at first but haven't seen any eyes lookin at me an been searching for a while! I have found crab shells when tearing it down a while ago!
Conch help
- Thread starter Lorna g
- Start date
If you're hearing clicking noises, there's a pretty good chance it's a pistol or mantis. My mantis sounds similar to the popping noise that ice cubes make when you drop them in water.
Could be either I guess but I've had a fighting conch and hawkwing conch in my tank and neither of my pistols have touched either in over a year. Granted my conch's are both the same size or bigger than the pistols and my tiger will on occasion grab a dwarf cerith for a snack. My bet would be crab honestly.
gnasher
New member
While they can be active at night, mantis shrimp are not usually nocturnal. Was the conch's shell damaged at all? If there are other snails that a mantis could carry, then I wouldn't think a mantis would go after a conch preferentially. Mantis shrimp are very lazy; It takes a lot of energy for them to smash a shell and they choose accordingly. I'm not saying it's not a mantis, just possible the death was by some other means and the foot was munched on a bit after by something else in the tank.
