Mantis shrimp? My tank knocks!

:laughing0

 

If you still hear it after lights out, I would almost bet real money it's a pistol shrimp. But mine does a whole lot of borrowing. you should notice major excavations where it's living.

 

LOL!!! I got a kick out of that one.

 

My tank has a strange knock time to time makes me wonder

 

i hear this noise everyday. lights on and off. they are pc's so i dont think the heat is an issue. fish in the tank are 2 clowns, bengai, blue damsel and 2 cleaners. assorted coral and clean up crew. oh and an eel that lives in the back. i have been meaning to set up another tank (pred) for him. bit of a brain fart. i really doubt the fish are making the noise. hmmmmm. usually the noise is 2 or 3 knocks in a row.

 

I hope it's a Pistol. They're great for keeping the substrate clean. Ours is busy all day, every day, just shovelling gravel backwards and forwards, piling it up in one corner, moving it to another corner, burying the odd coral etc.

I love Pistols.

 

I think you may be on the right track.

 

I have two pistols and they have a shoot out every time i turn the lights low;D as some one said look for a burrow...if its a mantis and you dont want it i hear you put a bottle under the sand tipped near a rock you think its in and put a piece of shrimp in the bottom of the bottle and watch for him...crabs cant escape from this trap(usually) but i am almost sure a shrimp can so tie fishing line to the bottle and watch for the shrimp to go in it and pull it up fast...are mantis shrimp really a threat or are they just loud?

 

they are a threat because they will eat everything.

 

I am fairly sure I have a mantis in my 135g....not a problem. I have no desire to go in and get it...it has never bothered anything. I saw it come out of his den one night.

Most mantis shrimp are so small that the chance of it getting a fish and killing it is very slight! It will usually just eat the junk that is around its den...old food, detrius etc. They are lazy animals...it is too much work for them to get out of their den, swim around your tank, grab the fish, and drag it back to its den. Trust me, they are not gracefull swimmers. Esp when most of our tanks have enough food lying around to keep it alive without doing all that work

The clicking you hear is it smashing rocks around its den...kind of housekeeping.

I used to be just like everyone on here...all mantis are bad...get rid of them...they are just killers. My LFS owner kept a couple peacocks in the store with a bunch of fish in the tank (inwall) and they never ate them. He would even put them in small tanks...nothing. That made me start to do some research on them...and again they are not those monsters that we all think they are.

I have a peacock mantis now in a tank that is one of my favorite things to watch. I have fish in there with him and he leaves it alone. I will be adding more soon. I even have 3 turbo snails in there for the last couple weeks and he has left them alone. He has learned that when I feed him snails or crabs I drop it to him. Plus he knows the regular feeding schedule...now I know I am pushing my luck with the snails but I needed a good clean up crew for now at least;D