Pistol or Mantis?

[Woodstock]

Ok.. one of my cleaner shrimps molted lastnight..no big deal.. BUT, when I went home for lunch I saw its molt pulled into a hole in a rock!! There is something living in there; I just don't know what it is. Hummmm... I believe it to be the same thing making a clicking noise...

I WILL find out in time . What do you think it is??

 

[AJinNY]

Hi Doni,

Can you describe the clicking? Like one two or three consecutive clicks or did it sound like a machine gun going off? Any fish or inverts disappearing?

 

[Woodstock]

No machine gun type clicking.. very intermittent and not every night either. 2-4 clicks and then it stops. I have been meaning to put in a 2liter jug trap just to see what I could catch but I could never figure out where the noise was coming from... until now!! I'll set a trap tonight~~

Nope, nothing is missing. Even my harlequins are doing fine (they're at the other end of the tank thank goodness!).

 

[Craig Manoukian]

nothing is missing. Even my harlequins are doing fine (they're at the other end of the tank thank goodness!).

Probably not a mantis.

 

[Gina]

No clue as to what may be in there! But, good luck finding out what it is!

 

[Witfull]

if you had a mantis,,,you would be missing lifeforms,,,snails first then others.

 

[gussy]

Mantis don't have wiskers that long.

 

[Craig Manoukian]

Those are the molted antennae gussy. :bigbounce

 

[Woodstock]

Mantis don't have wiskers that long.

:laughroll

 

[Gina]

I take it you haven't caught it yet! Good luck! Waiting to hear what you find!

 

[Woodstock]

Trap is set.... lights are out...

 

[VINA DEL MAR]

If you see smoke after the clicking noise it could be a pistol shrimp.And if you hear 2 clicking and then stops it means they are reloading.LOL
Sorry I can help it it's Friday night!
Seriously I think you have a pistol shrimp not a mantis.

VINA

 

[Gina]

Did you catch it yet?

 

[Woodstock]

No. Nothing was in my trap this morning. I will remove the rock this morning after I wake up and have coffee and squirt soda in the hole.

 

[Woodstock]

It was simply a worm? That doesn't explain the clicking noises I hear at night though. Do rock boring clams make clicking noises??? There were perfect tunnels all through the rock. I cracked the rock in half and found 5-6 rock boring clams and a huge fire worm. The pic below shows only half of the worm. I did not want to break the rock any more so I guess it's possible that the culprit is still inside.....

 

[VINA DEL MAR]

Doni do you have any powerheads in your tank?are they on a sequence timer(wavemaker)?
I once found mine making similar noises.

VINA

 

[Woodstock]

No. I wish I had a wavemaker timer on my power heads. The tunnels throughout the rock were perfectly rounded and wound through the rock like a maze... something a clam could not have done. I'm not convinced I found the culprit yet.

 

[Craig Manoukian]

I'm not aware of clams making clicking noises Doni.

 

[Gina]

I can't imagine that the worm pulled the molt into the hole? I don't think you've discovered it yet. Is it possible one of the fish could have done it? Probably not, just a thought though.

 

[mattie]

the one on the left looks like a the casing for a peanut worm. you would no for sure if you ever saw long stringy poop coming out of that hole. well i hope the clicking sound goes away on its own. i have had em in the past on new rock and was concerned but over time it went away.
since i just bought some rock to make frags i now have a clicking sound coming from a small rock in my display tank. which could not house anything big enough to be concerned.