Is it possible I have a mantis??

AndtheBonus

AndtheBonus

Member
So as some of you may or may not know 3 of my fish died all within the same day or 2 :(. But none of them recovered! I went to my LFS to check my parameters because my tests kept on showing everything was perfect. All their tests also showed perfect water conditions. Except Mg2+ was a little low but that is being taken care of. Me and the employee at my LFS were at a loss for why my fish died and all in the same time frame. She mentioned maybe having a mantis in my tank. She asked if I had heard clicking noises at night. I told her no. I was sitting in my room tonight when bam! It sounded like a switch or something had been turned on inside my tank. Could this actually be a mantis? Maybe it came as a baby in my live rock back in August and has now grown up. BTW after I heard the clicking noise I no I have heard that sound coming from the tank before at night I have always just ignored it. What are the chances of this being a mantis?? If it is that would be really cool but at the same time I would want to get that little bugger out of there ASAP!
 
chipmunkofdoom2

chipmunkofdoom2

Well-Known Member
It's possible. If fish were physically missing, that makes sense. It's difficult to be sure though. Where did your rock to come from?
 
AndtheBonus

AndtheBonus

Member
Yea well 2 fish are physically missing. Have not seen them in a week. My clown I saw struggling to swim then die. I got my rock from my LFS way back in August when I set up the tank. Maybe I got a mantis as a baby and now its all grown up?!
 
Reddog170

Reddog170

Active Member
Anything is possible. My idea is to take a night and camp out in front of your tank with a red lensed flashlight. Watch it and see what comes out to "play". Shaun
 
AndtheBonus

AndtheBonus

Member
Are there any other predators that may be in my tank that can kill a 6-line, royal gramma, and a true perc. clown?
 
M

mcfly

Member
go to youtube and watch some videos so you can hear the sound they make to help you determine. i used a inverted top of a liter soda bottle with some food in there to catch mine i had about a year ago
 
goldenmean

goldenmean

Well-Known Member
Even if you have a mantis it will not kill 3 fish in one day.
Many different species of mantis do not kill fish at all. These are the smashers. They break rock and shells (hermits and snails) to find their dinner. The mantis with spearing appendages may kill fish but not 3 in a day. Same with a pistol shrimp.

It is possible that some sort of toxin got into the water that affected your fish. Something airborne or maybe off of someone's hands???

Oxygen levels in the tank water could be another thing to look at.
Do you have an open top or closed tank? skimmer? Power heads aimed to break the surface of the water to help air/water gas exchange?
 
AndtheBonus

AndtheBonus

Member
The O2 levels were my original thought because I moved my return to clean it and when I put it back I forgot to face it towards the surface. I did not realize for about two or three days. Could this have been the problem? It's and open top btw and my room had been pretty cold so the fan above the tank was not on which is gives me a lot of surface agitation as well (Temp. is 79) with very little fluctuation. The thing that has me confused is that ammonia, Ites, and Ates are all 0. If they died and were just hanging out on the bottom of the tank wouldn't there have been some die-off making something spike?? Everything has been zero the whole week. The fish disappeared a week ago.

Currently no fish in the tank. Just CUC (Turbos, Blue-Legs, Sand-Sifter star, ceriths, and two nassarious)
 
Gwen

Gwen

Member
Maybe I also have a mantis???!!! I hear that clicking noise quite often esp. in the evening. Nothing is missing yet, but I'll look for that guy...
 
Gwen

Gwen

Member
Maybe I also have a mantis???!!! I hear that clicking noise quite often esp. in the evening. Nothing is missing yet, but I'll look for that guy... :confused:
 
ReefLady

ReefLady

Well-Known Member
Staff member
Maybe I also have a mantis???!!! I hear that clicking noise quite often esp. in the evening. Nothing is missing yet, but I'll look for that guy...
Click to expand...

Have you removed the crab from your system yet? I only ask because I saw the pic of your crab in your gallery, and it looks very similar to one we removed from our 180g. That crab made fast work of most of the snails in our tank, and to this day, I believe it was responsible for some of the "clicking/popping" we heard in the tank.
 
razorvines

razorvines

Member
Gwen said:
Well, yes, I can hear it more often in the evening.
Pistol Shrimp? Is it better or worse?
Click to expand...

Well PS is better than a Mantis, because they aren't aggressive. However I had two PS and they both took out a clown so they had to go :cursin: .
 
Gwen

Gwen

Member
Thanks for the question. Yes this crab was removed from my tank, I have also thought he made the noise, but NOT... the noise still can be heared... :evileye: maybe another carb...

ReefLady said:
Have you removed the crab from your system yet? I only ask because I saw the pic of your crab in your gallery, and it looks very similar to one we removed from our 180g. That crab made fast work of most of the snails in our tank, and to this day, I believe it was responsible for some of the "clicking/popping" we heard in the tank.
Click to expand...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top