hitchhiker

Well for over a month at night I have been hearing a clicking sound. I've watched and watched and never see anything and nothing has gone missing and no broken hermit shells.

The other day my hubby said he saw tentacle like things poking through rocks, sure enough I look carefully at the rocks and I see a shrimp like body with long legs like cleaner shrimp have but it scurried back into it's home deep in my LR.

So I have been looking and monitoring the last few days while doing homework. We heard clicking Monday night but when I took a small flashlight to the tank sure enough I see a small shrimp scurry away real quick back into the rock. Now I'm fustrated because I need to see it to determine if it's a pistol or mantis. And I pray it's not a mantis. Well last night while lights are on I can see it poking it's legs through the rock cleaning it just like a cleaner and none of my fish, crabs, or shrimp are threatened by the area. It has yellowish legs but it won't come out of the rock.

Last night my hubby saw it. He said it has one claw larger than the other and it looks like a lobster shrimp. He knows what mantis' look like and praying mantis' and he said it doesn't look like it at all. He said it's dark bluey gray in colour and holds it's claws outwards. He better be right because my homework says that's a pistol. I saw it come out of the rock a little bit but as soon as a fish or crab goes near it rushes right back.

 

If it looks like a shrimp and one claw is larger than the other, it's most likely a pistol shrimp. Not destructive at all but they can eat cleaner shrimp if they get hungry.