Clicking sound inside in tank

[Tab964]

I recently setup my new tank and all that is in there is live rock. I hear clicking sounds at night. I think it may be a mantis since I have not seen any sand shifting from a pistol shrimp. How can I catch this thing. I have heard too many horror stories. Is there anything else it could be like a nice harmless crab that snaps it claws because it likes music.

[David Shaw]

Yikes i fear the worst. Better to find it now before you stock the tank.

Did you dip the rock before putting into your tank?

Well you can go to the tank after lights out with a red light to try and see which rock it is inhabiting, then remove that rock. Also, some have had good luck setting traps for them.

I think you will need patience and determination.

Personally, my clicking drove me insane and i ended up stripped the tank down and dipped all the rock and syphoned the sand to get rid. That was an extreme measure though.

Am sure loads on here can offer great advice.

[Shazabh]

Tab964
I can offer you no advice only my sympathy. I have had clicking in my tank now for getting on a year. I have tried everything to get rid of what ever it is. I bought a very expensive trap that did'nt work. I took the tank to pieces and found a very large crab who i thought was the culprit but as soon as i put everything back in the tank the clicking started again. It drives me crazy. I was sat untill 2.30 this morning with a fed light but could'nt see anything only the clicking. So far i have lost several small gobies and some small hermits. I put live bait in a glass in the tank and set my video recorder to record at night but when i get up the bait is still there. I go have a shower, come back to the tank and it's gone but it managed to still get out of the glass. I have never in my 45 years of life found anything that drives me mental as much as this does. It's like he teases me
Good luck
Sharon

[David Shaw]

Sharon

There was a woman on here called Chimo who had exactly the same problem, it turned out she had 2 mantis shrimps in hers. It was like a war and the mantis always seemed to win.

She got hers out by stripping the tank down and dipping everything in freshwater and also in soda water. Dangerous, because it can kill off the live rock. But if you are loosing fish and going insane to me it's worth it.

When i stripped mine down to do the same a while ago, i dipped everything in freshwater and rebuilt the tank from scratch and luckily the clicking stopped. I never did find a mantis so i can only assume it was inside a rock and died there without getting flushed out into the dip.

I then put in double doses of live bacteria in for a week to try and keep the live rock alive and it worked, i didn't loose any coralline etc.

All that worked for me, but it's a dodgy route to go with the live rock. That said, i just had to do it as the clicking was driving me INSANE.

[Shazabh]

Thank you David
I have followed Chimo posts and felt for her untill the day she got them. Most of my rock is covered in mushrooms, Zoas and other corals. The last time i stripped down my tank it caused terrible problems with my water params and i ended up with such a bad algae outbreak that i lost alot of corals to it. At the moment it has'nt touched my 2 clowns.6 line wrasse or my orchid dottyback but these are now big fish but i know that in time whatever it is in the tank will one day eat them to. Just writing about it stresses me out i think i need therapy
Tab964 Dont let me put you off catching it
Sharon

[David Shaw]

Yikes thats bad news.

Have you tired quarantining all the rock into a separate tank? then moving piece by piece slowly over time, so you can tell which tank it is then in when you hear which tank the clicking is coming from? That way you could just ditch that particular rock.

I was like Sigourney Weaver, i just wouldn't let it go, i refused to be beaten by it. I guess i got off lightly with no damage to the tank balance or corals. I did a massive 100% water change over the week and added double doses of live bacteria every 2 days, and that saw me sail through with no damage.

I so sympathise with you. It's like being taunted with something hijacking your tank from you.

[1Reefer]

Not all mantis eat fish, but they are all VERY smart. I consider you lucky to have gotten a mantis hitchhiker as I'm looking at buying one of the evil little buggers lol. I would think your best bet would be to figure out what rock its in and remove just that rock to QT until you figure out how to catch it. Have you left that expensive trap sit in the tank for a day or two? To kind of let him get use to it being there? I had to catcha wrasse out of my DT which is fully scaped and corals all on rocks (don't like plugs). This guy was smart, I had to leave the trap in the tank for almost three days (caught him/her on day three) but the chromis I was also removing went right in, like 20 mins after I put the trap in. I would recomend placing the trap back in (if you can't find or remove the rock its in) and leaving it for awhile, maybe even make it his own personal feeding area. Placing food around it as well as inside, put some sand or rock inside the trap to make it seem more natural. I can post a picture of the style trap I used if you would like, its a larger acrylic rectangle shape with a guillitine style glass sliding door. I made it

[David Shaw]

Cant believe you actually WANT to put a mantis in your tank

I hope you have a good therapist

[1Reefer]

lol the mantis is going in my fuge'

[David Shaw]

LOL the mantis would go in my freezer

[1Reefer]

Haha, idk why I just find them very interesting. Its incredible to watch em smash open crabs or snail shells, they are very odd little creatures.

[Tab964]

I saw a peacock mantis at a LFS and said wow. But after reading to horror stories no way in my tank. Luckily my tank is a new upgrade. I have liverock in there for a few weeks now but I heard the sound after I placed a live sponge I got. The sponge was great a pretty red. Not a tree sponge but w ridge type. It was on a live filtering clan with some LPS corals. So dipping it would been bad. Anyway I noticed the clicking after I added that piece so I moved it to the fuge/sump area in the part w/no rocks or algea. I now hear the clicking down there. I hope I am hearing the clicking moved moved and not a mind game that it is isolated. I will now use a turkey basted on the sponge/clam to blush him out. I never exposed the sponge to air it is really a nice sponge don't want to loose it

[Clownfish518]

what kind of sponge is it? There are pistol shrimps that live inside sponges - it could be one of them. I'm not convinced its a mantis

[Tab964]

It is a red ridge sponge. I did a google but nothing. It looks like a red mountain with peaks and valleys. It also is more solid feeling than other sponge. There are also 2 small crabs living in the valleys of the sponge I think they may be bad crabs. They are only the size of my thumb nail but I can see black tips on ones claws. I will get them out before putting sponge back in tank.

[Frankie]

Could also be just a snail hitting the glass when it passes a certain spot.
That is what I had going on when I heard clicking in my tank. Took me a few days to find the reason though.