New Tank Update & Some Questions Re: Mantis Shrimp

[fishlette]

well its been a while since ive posted and a lot has happened.

about a month ago a got two ocellaris clowns and a bi colour blenny. everything went along well for about 2 weeks. one morning when doing my ritual check of everyone i noticed this odd thing on one of the clowns ventral fin. tis very hard to explain what it looked like but it was kinda like a small cockroach about 5mm long with like a thin clear film over it. i took that clown out and put him in the quiet part of the sump (the following morning it had dropped off. i spoke to my marine friend and he had no idea what it could have been but he seemed 100% normal again). straight after taking out the first one i noticed i couldnt see the other clown anymore. i didnt think much of it as they had been starting venture in and explore the myriads of hiding places i have made out of the 45kg of live rock. the next morning i still couldnt see him. when, at lunch time i still couldnt see him, we decided to do a massive search for him. there was no nemo #1 to be found anywhere.

i headed in to see my mate and was talking to him about the disappearance of my clown. after a while we came to the conclusion that we had a mantis shrimp...i was so depressed lol but i guess its better to find it now than after ive started putting corals and anemones etc in. it would really suck to have to dismantle a reef to catch the little blighter. it had seemed odd to me that the clown would have died so quick considering when i took the first one out the other one was dashing around in the power head flow

i do have a few questions about them though that i havent been able to get answers to anywhere else;

a) do the 'spearers' only spear fish or will they do it to corals, nems etc??
B) also, so they break rock like the 'clubbers'??
c) do they move rock?

im guessing the best way to deal with it is to find the piece of rock it is living in and dunk it in fresh water ?? is there any way i can tell which rock it is in or should i just do all of them? how can i be 100% sure i even have one? what do i do with it once i have it?

sorry about all the questions but i really dont want him in my tank anymore lol

 

[SkiFletch]

tis very hard to explain what it looked like but it was kinda like a small cockroach about 5mm long with like a thin clear film over it

Are you sure a mantis shrimp is the culprit? The above text makes me wonder if you have predatory isopods instead... Something to think about/look into

In order for a mantis shrimp to get bold enough to take down a clownfish, it will have to be pretty large. Chances are you'd see it. Mantis shrimp will not harm corals but will "landscape" around thier den/burrow. They'll move small pieces of rock around near their hiding place as most of them will use rubble/frags to plug their hole when they hunker down in there. Both spearers and smashers are capable of killing fish, so dont just assume its a spearer

Also, have you checked for carpet surfing just in case?

 

[fishlette]

tis very hard to explain what it looked like but it was kinda like a small cockroach about 5mm long with like a thin clear film over it

Are you sure a mantis shrimp is the culprit? The above text makes me wonder if you have predatory isopods instead... Something to think about/look into

In order for a mantis shrimp to get bold enough to take down a clownfish, it will have to be pretty large. Chances are you'd see it. Mantis shrimp will not harm corals but will "landscape" around thier den/burrow. They'll move small pieces of rock around near their hiding place as most of them will use rubble/frags to plug their hole when they hunker down in there. Both spearers and smashers are capable of killing fish, so dont just assume its a spearer

Also, have you checked for carpet surfing just in case?

i just assumed mantis because it disappeared so quickly. thats what my mate said too so i went with that. so what are these isopods? i will google them and read up.

and i could probably check for carpet surfing if i knew what it was lmao

quick question: what is making the sand in my tank turn flourescent colours?? the sand along the glass at the front has pink and green flourescent in it. it kinda got stirred up when i added some dead coral pieces today and then went purple. will take some pics tomorrow but i dont like the look of it

 

[SkiFletch]

Hehe, carpet surfing = fish that jumped out of the tank and ended up on the carpet...

 

[fishlette]

Hehe, carpet surfing = fish that jumped out of the tank and ended up on the carpet...

lmao im so dumb sometimes

dont think it would be that. we had just bought a nintendo wii the day before and we were playing it in the area in front of the tank. i would have stepped on it or something. plus its polished floorboards not carpet which is a plus cause you can hear when a fishie jumps onto the floor.

i really hope i dont have one lol i dont want to have to try and find it. but if its as small as it would have to be for me not to see it, then is it a problem?? how past do they grow?