Could i have a..........

Hi all,

Now I Know this is a long shot but is there a remote possibility I could have a manitis shrimp in my tank???? Its a year & a half old but since day 1 i have heard loud clicking noises coming from it when i turn the lights off. I want to worried as i though it could just be a pistol shrimp but as times gone on perfectly healthy fish have just vanished with out a trace! My latest being a rather large flame angel!.
My params did go a little out wack but nothin that would harm a fish.

The morning that i woke up to find my flame missing my other fish were acting terrified & were hiding from me, which is totally not normal for them & the only way i could entice them out was by feeding them & after that they were back to there normal selfs.

This morning I got up turned just my blue lights on & me my hubby were stunned to hear how loud the clicking was! Its lasted for about 5 mins click........click,click.......click....................click,click,click,...........click,click..........
.............Just none stop in singles. twos & threes! It was like what ever it was was really pissed!

I just dont seem to be having much luck at the mo!

So far 2 peppermints have dissapeared, a flame angel,dart fish, scooter blenni ( but he was not well as he got sucked up a hose by my hubby) My yellow tang also got hurt when he got sucked in by my korila & it broke his back tail & all his fins & we found just a tiny bit of him the next morning!
snails & hermits just vanish:-/

I dont know..........................................................

 

It is indeed possible, but keep in mind that usually when a fish goes down, every type of worm/snail/hermit crab/etc considers that food.

A better question might be where you got your live rock from. Was it cured or uncured? If it was cured its highly unlikely its a mantis. A more likely suspect would be a crab thats grown up in the tank, and manages to prey on sleeping fish.

Either way, short of tearing your tank apart (Which still might be the best option if there is something in there, which there very well could be), something is enjoying themselves!

 

I got it from my lfs & when my hubby went to collect aload a matis shrimp jumped out of a piece of live rock my hubby had picked! My hubby had to laugh cause the men at the store were terrified & refuced to go near it so they had to go get someone else to catch it. The rock is just shipped in from where they get it from then kept in huge containers on display with lights over it.

I do have a few small crabs in my tank about the size of a two pence but they are just not big enough to eat a whole flame angle in 7 hours.

Anyone got any ideas how to catch out a mantis shrimp? I would at the very least like to see it!

 

sorry to hear that man i would think that its a mantis ive never personally had to dea lwith one i rekon i would strip the rocks out but thats my opionion i dont really know

 

Its hard to Know what to do really!

It just seems really odd as the more i think about it the more im convinced.....................& why do they all dissapear at night?!

I would have though i would have seen it by now though shorely??

I have a 300ltr tank with alot of live rock so i think my chances of finding it are slim! I only have two fish now & i dare not buy anymore as im worried they wil just end up really exspensive food for whatever it is thats eating them!
My flame cost me £59 pounds.............I cant afford for them to just dissapear lol!

 

kiarah
its possible , its also possibly its a pistol shrimp as they also make a clicking noise

I once had to move a tank that had been set up maybe 4 years, and when I lifted the last piece of rock out of the bucket a 1 inch shrimp with a very large pincer was left in the base of the tub - no idea how long it had been in the tank, had never seen any sign of it

check you tank sand bed for signs of tunneling under the rocks

also next time you hear the clicking , double check there are no snails doing a sort of twist dance - as when they do this on the glass, you do get a series of repeating clicks
snails do this to clean off the underside of their shells so its easier for them to slowly meander to the next location (Turbo snails, a contradiction in terms IMO )

Steve

 

I would set a trap.

 

I do have burrows under my LR & have never clearly seen whats made them & i have spent many hours watching it move the gravel around. I just put that down to a small pistol shrimp............the sounds i hear are really loud & can be heard over our tv.


I would love to set a trap! Any ideas how i would go about doing this?

I would have though it would have to be a good sized creature to take out a perfectly healthy flame angal althou it has gone for my wounded fish too..........talk about being a bad sport!

I have even tried to stalk my tank at 3 in the morning with a red tourch in hope off finding the hunter......


P.S Steve i still cant seem to add to anyones karma, I keep clicking on the funny white shape that says to add karma but its not bringing up anything.
My poor clown has taken to sleeping up high in my tank behind one of my skimmer where as he used to sleep in my rida mushrooms.

Like you said a trap seems like a great plant to me!

 

Then it's most likely a pistol shrimp.
Here's a mantis.........click
Here's a pistol shrimp.......CLICK




I would love to set a trap! Any ideas how i would go about doing this?

I would have though it would have to be a good sized creature to take out a perfectly healthy flame angal althou it has gone for my wounded fish too..........talk about being a bad sport!

That works well with crabs and shrimp. It doesn't work on stomatopods though. They have the most complex vision of any known animal. It's just sitting there thinking, "What on earth are they doing?"

Click ONCE. If you double click, it opens fast and then closes fast. If that doesn't fix it, look at your pop-up blockers in your browser and any possible add-on browser bars (ie Google, AOL, etc)

My poor clown has taken to sleeping up high in my tank behind one of my skimmer where as he used to sleep in my rida mushrooms.

Like you said a trap seems like a great plant to me![/QUOTE]

A pistol will take out other shrimp. It won't go after crabs or snails.

I really doubt you have a mantis. If you had a mantis, all of the shells from the dead snails and crabs would be right outside where you see the tunnels. With that said, I've kept mantis in my reefs and fish in my mantis species tanks. Never lost a single one. Schackmel had a damsel that was afraid of people and he would make her 8" long peacock mantis mad. If you went into that room, the damsel would swim right into the mantis den and then the mantis would push it back out.

Crabs kill other crabs and snails to steal their shell. That's why you always have to buy spare shells of various sizes so they just move as they grow instead of fight over shells.

Crabs kill fish a whole lot more than mantis do. I had an Eriphea sebana (otherwise known as the red-eyed crab from the depths of Heck). The first time I saw him, his carapace was the size of a dime. Months and months later, I saw him again. His carapace was the size of a half-dollar and was almost a half inch thick and his claws were quite imposing. I saw him at night with a red flashlight trying to take out my clown.

My friend Rich has a stone crab named Brutus. Brutus was a tiny hitchhiker at one time too.

 

Hu curt,

So if its not a mantis taking out my fish then what do you think is going on in my tank?

I do have 2 hitchhiking crabs but they are very small the size of a pound coin 7 i dont think they could get hold of a flame angel.............

I just dare not add anymore fish at the mo!

My cardinal fish is really spooked aswell at the mo.. Had my friends daughter over & he was terried off her! kept hidding from her everytime she tried to look at him.