Omg I Have A Mantis Shrimp.... Or Do I?
No it's not cryptic. But I have had a mantis shrimp in my tank before. And I just want to share my experience to further enrich the information in the public domain about these shrimps.
This is my story:
So I got my tank together, added live rock and started to see all the normal inverts come out of the rock. Although, about 1 week later I began hearing a ticking noise (The sound of metal hitting glass) of about anywhere between 1-3 ticks in a row, but I didn’t think much of it. Then I went to my LFS and the owner so happened to mention, after telling him that I’ve been seeing worms and crabs and nudibranchs come out of the rock, he said “The only thing you need to be concerned about is if you are hearing a ticking noise, it could be a mantis shrimp or a pistol shrimp.” So after doing a bit of light research when I got home, I decided that for my tank a mantis shrimp would be more of fiend than a friend and if it was living in my tank that it needs to be relocated.
So, I was lucky at the time, I only had a little bit of rock in my tank at the time. I had been reading that I needed to dip the rock in fresh water/sparkling water in order to force it out. But, I didn’t fancy risking the life of other invertebrates that I wanted in my cycling tank. I pick up a rock… and it was really really light… so I looked around the rock with a torch on my phone, and while I didn’t see any evidence of a mantis shrimp’s eyes looking at me… a part of the rock broke in my hand and up opened the mantis shrimp’s lair, along with 1 mantis shrimp inside. So I removed the shrimp and my tank was fine.
But it didn’t stop there…
I continued to hear clicking in my tank… Not as frequent but nonetheless I was ticking. But I was lucky enough to just catch a glimpse of a small crab on a rock, clipping the rock with its pincers… This crab was also contributing to clicking… So that crab was removed and placed into the sump at my LFS. But the clicking didn’t subside and I began to see crab shells around the tank and I thought perhaps I have another mantis shrimp as I had added more live rock to my tank.
Although late one night my partner looked into the tank and saw again a large crab pulling at the rock and the clicking noise was in unison with the crab clipping at the rock. He has since been removed (he was NOT happy about it) and the ticking…. Well it still didn’t subside, but it was a LOT less frequent. Although since the forced departures of the two crabs the fish seemed happier and would swim more frequently behind the rock and the hermit crabs were exploring more – so things were looking up, since the apparently, intimidating crab was removed.
But the ticking… so like I said above, much less frequent, about 10 times a night, rather than 100-150 times a night. But we finally found the source of the less frequent clicking… it was the thermostat on the heater clicking off and on… So that was a great feeling!
So that’s my story of my mantis shrimp experience.
Like I said above, the mantis shrimp’s click was like the sound of metal hitting glass… quite high pitched… (But it would depend on what the mantis shrimp was hitting). Further, I was lucky enough to see and hear the snap of a pistol shrimp because my LFS had a pistol shrimp and goby pair, and I would say that a pistol shrimp’s click is a bit deeper and sounds more like the clicking of your fingers, rather than metal on a glass.
So this is my story and I hope that others who might find themselves in the same situation as me, might be able to read this and hope determining what their clicking is.
Now for removing it? They are incredibly smart… it is probably best to set aside some rock at a time, some in your tank and some in a bucket of water with a heater… and move the bucket to a separate place in your house to that of the tank. If you hear the click come from the tank, well then it is still in rock in your tank and If it is from the bucket WELL DONE! You’ve found it and now you can sell it back to your LFS, because after all mantis shrimps are highly sort after and interesting inverts!
I hope this will help anyone that finds themselves in a similar situation!
This is my story:
So I got my tank together, added live rock and started to see all the normal inverts come out of the rock. Although, about 1 week later I began hearing a ticking noise (The sound of metal hitting glass) of about anywhere between 1-3 ticks in a row, but I didn’t think much of it. Then I went to my LFS and the owner so happened to mention, after telling him that I’ve been seeing worms and crabs and nudibranchs come out of the rock, he said “The only thing you need to be concerned about is if you are hearing a ticking noise, it could be a mantis shrimp or a pistol shrimp.” So after doing a bit of light research when I got home, I decided that for my tank a mantis shrimp would be more of fiend than a friend and if it was living in my tank that it needs to be relocated.
So, I was lucky at the time, I only had a little bit of rock in my tank at the time. I had been reading that I needed to dip the rock in fresh water/sparkling water in order to force it out. But, I didn’t fancy risking the life of other invertebrates that I wanted in my cycling tank. I pick up a rock… and it was really really light… so I looked around the rock with a torch on my phone, and while I didn’t see any evidence of a mantis shrimp’s eyes looking at me… a part of the rock broke in my hand and up opened the mantis shrimp’s lair, along with 1 mantis shrimp inside. So I removed the shrimp and my tank was fine.
But it didn’t stop there…
I continued to hear clicking in my tank… Not as frequent but nonetheless I was ticking. But I was lucky enough to just catch a glimpse of a small crab on a rock, clipping the rock with its pincers… This crab was also contributing to clicking… So that crab was removed and placed into the sump at my LFS. But the clicking didn’t subside and I began to see crab shells around the tank and I thought perhaps I have another mantis shrimp as I had added more live rock to my tank.
Although late one night my partner looked into the tank and saw again a large crab pulling at the rock and the clicking noise was in unison with the crab clipping at the rock. He has since been removed (he was NOT happy about it) and the ticking…. Well it still didn’t subside, but it was a LOT less frequent. Although since the forced departures of the two crabs the fish seemed happier and would swim more frequently behind the rock and the hermit crabs were exploring more – so things were looking up, since the apparently, intimidating crab was removed.
But the ticking… so like I said above, much less frequent, about 10 times a night, rather than 100-150 times a night. But we finally found the source of the less frequent clicking… it was the thermostat on the heater clicking off and on… So that was a great feeling!
So that’s my story of my mantis shrimp experience.
Like I said above, the mantis shrimp’s click was like the sound of metal hitting glass… quite high pitched… (But it would depend on what the mantis shrimp was hitting). Further, I was lucky enough to see and hear the snap of a pistol shrimp because my LFS had a pistol shrimp and goby pair, and I would say that a pistol shrimp’s click is a bit deeper and sounds more like the clicking of your fingers, rather than metal on a glass.
So this is my story and I hope that others who might find themselves in the same situation as me, might be able to read this and hope determining what their clicking is.
Now for removing it? They are incredibly smart… it is probably best to set aside some rock at a time, some in your tank and some in a bucket of water with a heater… and move the bucket to a separate place in your house to that of the tank. If you hear the click come from the tank, well then it is still in rock in your tank and If it is from the bucket WELL DONE! You’ve found it and now you can sell it back to your LFS, because after all mantis shrimps are highly sort after and interesting inverts!
I hope this will help anyone that finds themselves in a similar situation!
