Do I have a mantis shrimp?

dantodd

New member
I recently bought a used tank. It is a 72 bowfront with about 80 lbs. of LR. When I got the tank it had some sand, the LR, 1 camelback shrimp, 1 fire cleaner shrimp and 1 yellowtail damsel.

After I set it back up and waited for a couple weeks I added a small school of green chromis. The damsel killed one the largest so I assume he had something wrong with him to begin with. The rest seemd to be doing fine but about 5 days after I got them 2 were missing one morning. Nothing on the floor nothing in the sump, no bones, no scales no nothing!

I was a little worried but there isn't much I can do at this point. A couple weeks pass and all of a sudden the fire cleaner shrimp is gone. No carcass, no molting, no evidence, just poof.

I haven't heard any tapping sounds from the rock nor have I seen anything when checking the tank out at night. I just added 100 astrea and hermits so I know if there is a mantis he won't go hungry but I'd like to know so I can find him and give him a good home.

Any ideas?


thanks,
Dan
 
Could be either the Camelback or the Damsel. I wouldn't put either in my tanks. How recently did you set up the tank? Too many fish too soon? So many possibilities really. The dead fish could have blown under the rock and got eaten by bristleworms, and any other critter that might be in there. You might take a flashlight with a red lens and scour the tank at night for hitchiker crabs, they can be pretty wicked.
 
Thanks for the suggestions. I hadn't realized that the camelback could be so viscious. I am certain it isn't the damsel. He did in the first chromis I refered to and there were battle scars and he showed no interest in eating the corpse so I doubt he'd eat the others.

Without any kind of ammonia jump I doubt they slipped under a rock. The tank has been setup at my house for about 8 weeks now. It was set-up in its previous location for about 1 year. Same rock, same sand (augmented some) and only a 50% water change when moving. There was a tiny little cycle in the first 2 weeks but that's it.

I've tried the red lensed flashlight (good ol' army surplus U/99) and didn't see anything but I suppose I could start looking frequently throughout the night at different times for a week or two. I hate to waste my time like that but sometimes even if you don't find anything it can be fun to see what does happen especially now with all the crabs and snails.

Plus it's fun to watch the nano at night, lots of stuff happens in there. :eek1:


dan
 
I usually saw my killer crab about an hour after all the lights were out. Yes I really like that night viewing myself. You might be surprised how fast some things can get eaten. Now if I had a nano and there was a Mantis in it, I'd be thrilled. I had to pay for mine!:D
 
If I do find one in the 72 I might just move him to the nano. Of course there are a ton of questions to answer before that though. What species, safe for a 10gal glass tank etc.etc.etc.

Let's solve one problem at a time. I just want to know what's taking out these critters.


dc said:
I usually saw my killer crab about an hour after all the lights were out. Yes I really like that night viewing myself. You might be surprised how fast some things can get eaten. Now if I had a nano and there was a Mantis in it, I'd be thrilled. I had to pay for mine!:D
 
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