mantis or pistol?

[NoobieNemo]

I've never seen it, sometimes it clicks during the day, sometimes right when the lights go out, maybe 3-4 times in a row, sometimes only 2...i've never seen him, i've looked SO HARD for over a YEAR and still haven't seen it...

is there a such thing as a ghost mantis?

i even bought the xterminator trap and baited it with a shrimp, caught nothing...
any ideas what it could be?

how to get him?

noobie

 

[Wryknow]

Sounds like a pistol shrimp to me. Any live stock disappearing on you?

 

[NoobieNemo]

I lost one lawnmower blenny, his tail was gone, he was a pretty big lmb too...but the thing is, since i put him in the new tank, i never saw him eat! and about two weeks later he died, but he was still fat! so I thought maybe a mantis

 

[Wryknow]

I think that missing snails, hermit crabs, or shrimp would be a better indicator as they seem to be the favorite mantis prey. Was the blenny eaten?

 

[NoobieNemo]

his tail

 

[gfk]

ive lost a cleaner shrimp and i am in the same boat. dont konw if i have a mantis or a pistol shrimp. its made a large burrow so i think it might be a pistol shrimp. im scared to get a yellow watchman gobie to try and find out. i think the cleaner might have gotten sucked into a pump cause i found some mess in my skimmer

 

[wfuavenger]

if it is a click, click, click its a pistol. if it sounds like a machine gun, its a mantis. my pistol nibbles on my Lawnmowers tail every-now-and-then.

 

[complexbooger]

if you keep snails or hermits look for a empty shell with a clean hole right through it. thats a sign of a mantis. i kept a mantis in 75 alone, and i fed it snails and hermits and all it would leave is the shell and a hole... until i added a bimac and the bimac ate him lol.

Listening to the way it click... i think it will kinda hard, i have a pistol in my reef and it could click very fast but i never hear it click more than 3 maybe 4 times straight.

I would try getting a stick or tube and start tappin it around holes on rocks. if you hear it click i would say its a pistol, cuz they will run up to anything and try to fight. But a mantis(IMO) will run before they attack even when trapped in a hole.

Dont know if that helps any bit lol. but if you find out what it was id like to know.

 

[NoobieNemo]

yea, I have a huge shipment from premium aquatics coming tomorrow, so I'll try to mess around with the sand and find a burrow or something...

thanks for the help

so a pistol can click 4 times in a row?

why do mantis click so many times?

is it a territory type thing?