Mantis Shrimp ?? Please Read

jamesp

jamesp

Member
OK, let me start by giving you a little history of my problem. I haven't been able to keep fish alive for the life of me. Over the past 2 1/2 years since I started into this hobby I have lost around 18-20 fish, peppermint shrimp, cleaner shrimp, crabs, snails, etc. Thinking it was something I was doing wrong I was about 2 minutes from selling all my set-ups and forgetting about this hobby.
Then the other day "BigEyedFish" posted the URL to Michael Moye's website. In his "History" section there was one sentence that jumped out at me and sent chills down my spine. <b>I heard the first dreaded ‘click’ of a mantis shrimp.</b>
Here’s the link.
http://www.moyesreef.com/tank/History.html
To start off I bought a used 125G tank from a friend of a friend, which had some live rock in it already. If my memory serves me correct I have been hearing this clicking sound almost from day one. I have added live rock since then from all different sources. So I’m not quite sure what order might have given me this possible “mantis shrimp”.
The clicking sound coming from my tank is <b>very loud.</b> I can hear it all throughout my house and it sounds like someone snapping their fingers. What do you all think?? Mantis ??
 
jamesp

jamesp

Member
Is it possible that in the years of having this tank that I would have never seen it?
Michael Moye got back to me really quick and said to try a "mantis shrimp trap". I still have 2 peppermints that have managed to stay alive. Will they get trapped?
 
banshee

banshee

Member
Yep. I only saw the first one...he was huge. I guess he got brave from being so big (about 4 inches). He would come out when the lights were on. The other two I never saw until I "got lucky" and caught them by accident.
 
jamesp

jamesp

Member
Would their bites take a chunk out of a fish? I had a blue tang that I found dead that look like something bit it.
Would these things bite us? If I remove the live rock piece by piece, would I need to wear some sort of glove?
 
twicklund

twicklund

Member
I had one that I heard clicking for a year and a half...I never saw him, until one night the little bugger was out when I was looking for pods...I saw what rock he went into and that was all I needed. Within the hour he was in my canal!!!
Now I have peaceful nights with no clicking...
:D
tw
 
jamesp

jamesp

Member
A&M,
Not quite sure. It's a long shot but I'm going to set up my video camera with night shot and see if I can catch what rock he lives in. If that doesn't work, then I will find some other way. I need to do some rock work anyway for some changes I'm making, maybe just do it then piece by piece.
 
twicklund

twicklund

Member
If you have the time you can take the rock out piece by piece and place it on a tarp. Sometimes they will come out when they realize their not in the water any more. Just make sure not to let your rock dry out...
tw
 
rsd

rsd

Member
Mantis shrimp are really awesome... but.
Remember... they have one hell-of-a punch.
There are two types. The first is a stabber. Inplace of one claw (from my understanding... I've never seen one) there is a dagger like claw that it wips out and impales fish with. The other is a clubber... it "boxes" its prey. Both move faster than you can imagine. I watched a mantis hit the side of a fish tank at an lfs. I could hear its punches but never saw the claw move. Just looked like he twitched.
So if you are going to go moving rock remember he might become defensive and strike at you.
I saw a picture in a magazine of a diver who got punched by a very large mantis while snorkling/skin diving. It punched him in the thigh. Huge bruise about the size of a baseball... swollen... and actually split open the skin.
Just makes ya want to put your fingers in the tank huh?
Good luck. Remember... it's probably only about an inch long... how bad could that hurt!?! ;)
 
jamesp

jamesp

Member
I've been told that Pistol Shrimp make the same noise. Do they have the same behavior as a Mantis, like only making that clicking sound after all the lights are off?
Went to bed last night and about 20 minutes later, all sorts of clicking going on. Can Mantis make back to back clicks? I keep hearing two clicks one right after the other.
Maybe two?
 
slothy

slothy

Active Member
well owning a pair of pistols they click all day long, my mantis (only a few days old) only clicked once but alot louder than my pistols.. best bet i would try is to get a red light and spend a few days seeing what runs around in there at night...
if you had a pistol i would bet your sand bed would have some pile ups somewhere, from it making its home.... (then again mantis are diggers too.....)
 
slothy

slothy

Active Member
well my mantis is in his own lil 6 gallon tank ... store bought.. im lucky to not have one as a hitchhiker :p
 
banshee

banshee

Member
Yes, they can click more than once. I've heard mine click 3 or 4 times in rapid succession.
I caught my Mantis shrimp the same way. I was rearranging live rock and had put a couple of pieces in my sump temporarily. After putting the rocks back in the main tank, I started to hear the clicking from the sump. The little *(!@ had jumped off the rock and stayed in the sump where he was easy to get....Lucky me! The 3rd Mantis was caught when I had to move my tank and I had my live rock in several buckets....heard the clicking from one of the buckets and.....you know the rest.
 
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