Help I have two issues!!

[Godzillarex]

Hi everyone

I have a few questions I need help with. I have 2 nano tanks set up. One is a typical mixed reef with normal parameters. The question that concerns this tank is that I have a what i think is a small polyp stony coral. The coral is fine but there is a tube, white and what i believe to be hard, between a few polyps. In the tube all i can see is a brownish mottled door. My first impression is that it is some kind of crustacean. It looks like there are a few arms around the door part. The best way to describe it is that it reminds me of those ants that make their home in plants and their heads are the same size as the openings to their colony. they use their heads to block the openings. This looks from the outside to be just like that. Can anyone help to comfirm that such a organism exsits in the marine environment? Sorry i have tried to take a pic but it just doesnt come out.

Second question. I have a 20 gal tank that i have stocked with local species from long island sound. I have a few pieces of live rock but other than that I have a ton of seaweed, snails, mussles and such that i have collected from the beach. Recently I started hearing a pinging sound coming from that area of the room. I assumed it was lighting issue but that was fixed and it still continued. The only thing i can think of is that it is a mantis shrimp. How i would have picked one up I have no idea. But how would i know if this was the case?? How can you tell if you have a mantis shrimp in a tank? The tank is glass and though it would be cool to have one I just dont want to have it break the tank when I am not around. ASlo is it even possible to find one in long island sound?

thank you any help you can give me would be greatly appreciated

G.

 

[philter4]

A photo would be a great help, it could be several things, many of which are not bad to have, for instance it could be a tiny tube worm, or a snail worm, neither of which will harm anything, but without a photo I don't have a clue.

To answer your second question, if it is making a noise I would guess a pistol or snapping shrimp. These are very common and easily found as hitch hikers in aquariums. While it is possible that it is a mantis, they usually are silent, though when the crusher types hit a clam shell it can be loud, pistol and snapping (by the way, pistol and snapping shrimp are the same, it is just that different areas call them by one or the other of those common names) commonly make the popping noise and it can be heard from a supprising distance away from the tank,