nightime noises...

[lil kim]

For the last 5 months there has been a lot of banging in my tank after the lights go out. I've pretty much written off a pistol as the cause because I've read that they tend to make only a few popping noises at a time.Whatever is in my tank makes numerous bangs at short intervals. Snails, hermits, porcelain crabs, and sally lightfoot crabs have all gone missing but no fish(so far). Two cleaner shrimp, a coral banded, 3 boxer/pompom crabs, and an urchin(diadema)are all I have aside from my fish. Could this be a mantis? I've tried a trap but all I've ever caught was my cleaner shrimp in the morning dancing around like idiots inside the trap.
Any suggestions would be appreciated...

 

[pisces77]

Sounds like a smasher to me. The good news is you have a small tank and can remove the individual pieces of LR. Figure out which piece the mantis is in, and reomve it. Hold it (with tongs) over a bucket of SW and pour club soda down the holes, the mantis should come out. If you don't want the mantis there are plenty of people that do, so let us know how this all works out.

 

[lil kim]

nighttime noises...

nighttime noises...

Any idea how to determine which rock he might be in? I've looked at night with a flashlight but haven't seen anything(it's mostly fiji so it's holy with lots of little hiding spots). I've set up a large rubbermaid with heater and powerhead and was planning on moving a few pieces of rock at a time in hope of narrowing down which rock it might be in. Any other suggestions would definately be helpful...thanx.

 

[Gonodactylus]

Pisces77,

On what do you base the suggestion that this is a smasher? I know of only one species of smasher that is nocturnal or crepuscular and it is extremely rare in live rock. The only possibility that this is a smasher that seems plausible to me is if the aquarium lights go off, but the room lights stay on for a bit. All of the stomatopods that I know of that might find their way into an aquarium will close up at lights off provided that the lights go off completely at the same time every evening. If some lighting in the room remains, they still might be active.

Roy

 

[lil kim]

The noises are the most frequent when the tank lights and room lights are off but I have heard it when only the actinic is on and a few times when all the lights are on. If you don't think it's a smasher can you suggest what it might be and how I could remove it before anything else disappears...

 

[Gonodactylus]

The only two sources of such noises are snapping shrimp and stomatopods. However, snapping shrimp don't usually kill or eat large mobile prey. You could have a nocturnal species of stomatopod, but I still consider that unlikely. Bottom line - I don't know.

Roy

 

[pisces77]

My thought was based on the missing critters, most of which are the favorite prey of a smasher, and the fact that pistol shrimp don't pick off snails (or other non-threatening critters). While most smashers are naturally diurnal, my mantis likes early morning (like 5:30am) activity as well. Also if there are fish that the mantis perceives as a threat, they might modify their behaivior to avoid confrontation with these antagonists (many other inverts do this, hermit crabs in a FOWLR with puffers and wrasses would be an example). In addition, intelligent creatures often have the capacity to change their habits is their environment/circumstances change.

You're the doc, I was just taking a deductive guess.

 

[lil kim]

Thanks for the response(and suggestions) and I'll yet you know if anything exciting shows up in my dig through my live rock. It was pretty quiet yesterday.Whatever it is must sense something's up but I'm on the hunt and I'm determined to find someone. I'm crossing my fingers for a mantis. To be continued....

 

[Nick 76]

I dont mean to hijack your post but i hear the exact same thing!!! ( im new ) however i hear it during the day as well.

my large clown makes a similar sound too when he is chomping, but i get distinct click click sounds. it isnt coming from the heater and definetly sounds like its from the live rock. havent seen a thing!! and i havent lost any fish.


would a new shrimp to the tank encourage this hiden thing to come out??