hmm... I hear clicking

[jandree22]

okay, so i just happened to find out by browsing that Mantis shrimp make a clicking noise? What exactly is that from? My tank has made clicking noises on occasion in the past, sometimes one, usually two or three in a row. The only things is, there's no major die off of anything. I've lost a few snails here and there, only one dead fish has ever gone truly MIA, and my cleaner shrimp has been fine.(Although he went MIA yesterday, hopefully for just a molt).

Anyways, do I have a mantis?! I've NEVER once see one in my tank, and I'm not convinced that there's enough die off to warrant my suspicion, but I do on occasion hear clicking. I've heard it on more occassions in the past than of recent. I never find broken snail shells though...should I be if I have a mantis? FWIW I got my rock from Gulf-View.

 

[tazdevil]

Could be a mantis, could be a pistol shrimp. They each have distinctive patterns to their "clicking".

 

[Anonymous]

Mantis are not easily seen, usually they are discovered by accident. Unexplained losses are one possible sign. The clicking.. I have no idea what they're doing when they're clicking, nor do I know if both "types" of mantis click (there are the stabbing kind, and the clubbing kind.. I know, a pisspoor explanation).

 

[c0yote]

I've heard that a long series of clicks is a mantis expanding it's burrow in the rock and 1-3 clicks is just a pistol shrimp poppin' it's claw.

 

[Anonymous]

i have also seen snails click their shells on the glass in attempts to shake something off.

 

[Anonymous]

My clicker finger sometimes goes awry, too....

(Pod, I miss your old sig.)

 

[Anonymous]

(Pod, I miss your old sig.)

not all appreciated it

 

[Sneaker]

I noticed the clicking, aw the mantis shrimp dash out of the rock hole and grab a piece of shrimp and then dashed back in... I didn't notice any major deaths in the tank, maybe a few missing blue tips and a scarlet hermit.

I did a fresh water dip and he came right out and I netted him and put him in my 10 gallon nano, I hear clicking every now and then but rarely see it.

kind of a bad quality pic...

 

[hdtran]

I have a mantis hitchhiker. It started out being pretty small (maybe 3/4" long in early November). It's now probably 1 1/2" long.

I've watched it predate. It's a smasher, not a stabber. It smashed at some rocks, and grabbed some pods. But I think it has also consumed some of my larger feather dusters, and certainly disposed of several barnacles. It is less shy now (but still wily and elusive). It is less loud than my hitchhiking pistol shrimp.

This mantis, when hunting, goes click-click-click, or click-click-click-click. (Or is it snap-snap-snap?). The pistol, I think, goes "CLICK" or maybe "SNAP!".

Now, I've got to get serious about trapping this sucker. I've got a couple of plastic bottle traps, but those only seem to catch my peppermint shrimp, or my negative-IQ mollusks.

Look for substrate piles forming near a rock. If you've got that, keep an eye on it. A fast moving flash of something is symptomatic of a mantis shrimp.

 

[Anonymous]

i have also seen snails click their shells on the glass in attempts to shake something off.

I just figured this one out a while ago. It usually happens when one snail is trying to shake another snail off it's back in one of the glass corners.

My heater also makes a click when it turns on and off...it took a lot of staring at that little light to figure out where THAT clicking was from.

I think my tank settles a little now and then too, and makes some clicking noise when I first stand in front of it. :?

 

[Anonymous]

Thank God I have never ran into hitchhikers of this nature...either aiptasia,flatworms,mantis...etc. My emerald crab sometimes clicks the glass when he makes a feeble attempt to lung at me..hahaha....But i know if its a mantis you need to destroy the bastard.....or the finger splitter is gonna ravage your tank...

 

[Sneaker]

But i know if its a mantis you need to destroy the bastard.....or the finger splitter is gonna ravage your tank...

I would suggest a nano tank before destruction.

 

[Anonymous]

Crush the Mantis not the tank..and yes you need to kill the Mantis...

 

[jandree22]

i've come to the conclusion that it's a pistol. after listening closer it is never more than 2 clicks in a row, and it is pretty loud. I also hear clicking during several instances every night when the lights go off...so if it was a Mantis I'm thinkin I'd have no snails left by now...my snail population is holding fine.

I might set up one of those bottle traps sometime just outa curiosity of what I'll catch, but I got a feeling it'll just be my Peppermints/Cleaner. I dunno :wink: