Mantis Keepers -- How much clicking do you hear?

Angel*Fish

cats and large squashes
I have caught and given away a mantis that is said to only "crack" to break apart his food.

I know that I have had a number of pistol shrimp in my tank.

I'm still hearing a lot of the "cracking" noises and have assumed that it is probably just more pistol shrimp. But of course every time I hear that sound, I worry that there could still be a little lurker somewhere in the tank. My fish have been fine so far -- but it's only been a couple of months. The "test" I guess would be buying the jawfish we want, but that's not really the way I want to do things

What is your experience with mantis "cracking":confused: Do they "crack" a lot?
 
Pistol small eyes

Pistol small eyes

My mantis cracks alot everyday.Yes they do crack while their eating(or breaking up food). But remember mantis have bigger eyes than the pistol shrimp.
 
I guess it depends on their mood, on how often they crack away at things. The ones in my forty gallon get mad after every water change and I will hear them whacking away for a few hours afterwards. I had a ciliata that drilled holes through all the rock in a 20g to build the most complex burrows I have ever seen. I don't know anything about pistol shrimp so i can't draw any conclusions about them. If you got some LR with a few baby mantis you may still have one in your tank. I like them and found that they don't disturb anything in my aquariums as long as they are fed so you may just want to keep one. They are apart of most reefs and in a well established system are just another aspect of the whole picture.
 
all of my mantis live in my bedroom and i hardly ever hear any cracking at all!
i do hear the occasional quiet crack when they try to break a tunnel through liverock like fcamdog said but its not noisy at all, you can only hear it in the dead of night when its dead quiet and you can only just hear it then.

i think ive been blessed with silent mantis as i have seen/heard others that crack all day long!
 
Is the clicking from a pistol shrimp is from its big claw opening and closing and the mantis clicking is from its strikeing? I usually hear my mantis when its eating and at night.
 
You can't generalize as to how much striking a stomatopod will do in a tank. Spearers are silent. Many smashers never strike the substrate and are only heard if they are trying to break open prey. On the other hand, a smasher nearing a molt and unhappy with its cavity in coral rubble can drive you crazy striking hundreds of times a day. Our O. scyllarus are kept in large tanks with egg crate dividers. Occasionally an animal will decide to break through to another compartment and will strike hundreds of times until it succeeds. It all depends on the species, the individual, and where it is in its molt and breeding cycle.

One more thing. Most of the animals being kept are strictly diurnal. If you hear clicking at night (when the tank is totally dark), it is probably not a stomatopod (more likely a snapping shrimp). The exception might be O. scyllarus that can be night-active particularly if there is some dim illumination.

Roy
 
THANKS ALL!!!! I you guys giving me your specific experiences -- that's what I was needing!

Gonodactylus -- thanks for that little "tidbit" about their usually being diurnal!!! Do you know how much time I have spent w/the flashlight looking for lurkers??? And I guess my traps never had a chance -- I faithfully set them before lights out and removed them in the morning:rolleyes:

GOOD NEWS!!!!!:bounce2: :bounce1: :bounce3: :celeb1: :celeb3: :celeb2: :celeb1: :celeb3: :celeb2: :celeb1: :celeb3: :celeb2: :lolspin: :celeb3: :celeb1: :celeb2: :spin1: :spin1: :hammer: :wildone: :jester: :jester: :dance: :beer: :celeb3: :celeb2: :celeb2: :celeb3: :celeb1: :lolspin: :lolspin: :lolspin: :wavehand: :wavehand:

Was sitting in front of tank, a little bugger crawled out on a rock -- :eek2: :eek2: :eek2: :eek2: Netted entire rock -- saw him jump off when placed rock in quarantine tank --

Woo-hoo!!!:D :D :D :D

OK that's 2 mantis shrimps caught out of that tank now -- I sure hope there are no more!!
 
My mantis is basically silent...he's happy enough to dig burrows under the rocks, as I have southdown in the tank.

My pistol shrimp, on the other hand are VERY loud. The orange bullseye pistol in my 10 gal, which is located our dressing room, makes a ton of noise. Then again, he's about 2.3-3" long, and has made burrows that are large enough for my dwarf angel and coris wrasse to cruise through. Needless to say, he doesn't appreciate the company, and voices his opinion. His variety is the tyoe that does not pair up, so he's beaten the crap out of 2 Randall's gobies that have tried to bunk down with him.

In the 12 gal next to my bed, I have a green pistol that is very small, but also loud. I have only seen him a few times, but can see his burrows.

Both shrimp have clicked loud enough to wake my wife & myself!

Very interesting note here, kids: the pistol shrimp's snap or pop, is not the actual contact between the two parts of the claw. The sound is actually a sonic pop from the speed at which the claw closes: a mini sonic "boom" of sorts. Can't recall where I read that, but found it to be very interesting.
 
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