Spottin a Mantis?

[lsu]

My 55 has been set up for almost a year. It probably had about 30-40 hermits(scarket, zebra, and blue legs), I'm not positive on the number becuase it seems that i kept adding more as they disappeared(thought they were killing each other for their shells). Over the past month they have all vanished. There appears to be broken shell pieces scattered throughout the tank but my goby keeps dropping sand on them so I cannot really tell. Throughout the night I can hear an odd popping noise. I have watched the tank with a red light but have failed to spot anything unusual. My fish and shrimp are all fine. I was wondering if mantis shrimp only come out at night and if it could be small enough to go undetected for so long. Are mantis shrimp really hard to spot? Also if it is a mantis will it start killing my fish and shrimp as it gets bigger? Any help would be appreciated as I am growing tired of having to buying hermits.

 

[stanlalee]

few crustascean eating sea creatures could resist shrimp for a full yr but I suppose if the hermits are that abundant its possible. As for hermits I had 20+ in my 30 gallon and am down to a consistant 5. I know I dont have a mantis. my 30g reef could simply not sustain that many hermits.

 

[1journeyman]

First off Mantis shrimp are very successful predators. They could easily be wiping out your crustaceans.
They are very secretive (usually... though if you do a search you'll see some pics I posted of a mantis in my tank that spent about 3 weeks mostly in the open; even swimming around sometimes). You could easily go without seeing it.
The popping noise could be a Pistol Shrimp (that I've also had as hitchhikers) or a Mantis.
A few people have had success baiting for them. It never worked for me. Get a glass jar or bottle and put some food in the bottom of it. Lean the jar against the rock. Supposedly the glass is too slippery for it to climb back out of.
I know in my case all I caught were my fish, snails and Emeralds.
The life expectancy of Mantis shrimps is about 2 years. I'm just going to quit buying crabs and hermits until he's dead. (should be soon based on the 2 years...)
Mine never has bothered either of my Cleaner Shrimp, btw. He does occasionally dart out and take food from my starfish.

 

[lsu]

thanks journeyman, I'm gonna try the bottle and see what i get.

 

[a2hotz]

Ive been hearing a popping noise in my tanks for a few weeks now and I was thinking it was a timer going off... I just realized after reading this threadm that I dont have any timers going off at nite! :scared:

 

[fishjem]

I had a mantis hitch hiker in my first reef but all he seemed to be eating were my fish. i finally saw him dart into a rock one day and took the whole rock out and ran it under hot water to kill him.