Ways To Tell If You Have Mantis Shrimp?

[heavenly_d3vi1]

I keep hearing a click from my tank, not loud enough to hear from another room.. but certainly loud enough to hear over the tv! It sounds like a glass thermometer knocking aginst the glass.. but I have no fish, so without finding missing fish, is there a way to tell if its a mantis shrimp?

 

[Uriel]

If you have a mantis shrimp on top of your glass anemone's then i really feel for you

 

[StandbySetting]

Sounds probable, I had 2 in my set up, easy to get rid of though, it sounded like a thermometer hitting the glass as you describe, I left a tall glass in the tank with some food in next to a rock so the shrimp can get in, as soon as it's in the glass it can't escape, if you're successful be careful when bringing it out of the tank, a mantis shrimp can and will slice your thumb open in 1/40 of a second, and in some cases can break your thumb, take it to your LFS and ask them to put it in their sump.

 

[heavenly_d3vi1]

Thanks Uriel.. those anemones are popping up all over the place! Found a massive one this evening!!

sbs - what food will me most tempting!?

 

[StandbySetting]

I used a small piece of bacon.

 

[lewiss]

Ok, hold on a sec! Mantis shrimp are very unusual to get as a hitchiker despite the common warnings. There is probably a reasonable account for the sound. Do you have hermits because they can cause this sound with their shells? A number of other inverts do too, including pistol shrimp, and a small variety of others.

Firstly dont panic. Set up the trap as mentioned and see what you get. If you do get one, dont kill it, people on here will want to get their hands on it if you dont want it!

What have you got in there so far??

Best time to look for hitchikers is on lights out. Mantis are noctournal so if its during light hours its prob not a mantis.

 

[heavenly_d3vi1]

No hermits.. all I have is hitchhikers atm! Worms, teeny lil snails, pods, glass anemones, stars etc..

 

[lewiss]

snails can cause the sound too. I rec you'll discover its not a mantis. i used to hear that clicking noise when i first set up my tank, mine turned out to be a hermit who got stuck somehow. Are your power heads knocking a rock on the glass, or something else on the glass?

Seriously dont panic.

 

[heavenly_d3vi1]

nope, I only have 10kg of LR atm, and none of its near the glass. Theres not even a heater in there atm to bang on the glass the lights are keeping it at a decent temp so far. The tank is pretty much empty, so I'm pretty sure I'd see if there was a snail tapping on the glass.

I have just remembered tho, earlier on I was watching a worm crawl up a rock, and spotted a little hole with a black pinser poking out.. could be a pistol?

 

[lewiss]

Could be a crab in there. Black crabs aren't good though! Set the trap and let's see what we're dealing with!!

 

[Donya]

Most common hitchhiker mantis shrimp are crustacean/snail-eaters. If you find any smashed up snail shells, that's a giveaway. However, small individuals may not be able to take large snails and many will ignore CUC (for a while) if they have other sources of food.

Catching mantis shrimp is tough, since the same thing usually won't work twice. It's usually easiest to just remove the rock they live in. I would think that if you don't feed the tank for a few days (they have big appetites and will get hungry fast) and then put a piece of food in anchored to something near the rock and sit patiently making as little disturbance as possible, you'll probably stand a good chance of seeing one if it's there. If you can turn off the lights in the room so that it's dark except for the tank lights, that often helps timid animals to feel a bit bolder.

Mantis shrimp are very unusual to get as a hitchiker despite the common warnings.

Depends where the rock's from and whether it's ever been farmed in a patch of ocean. Rock that has been from tank to tank for ages is unlikely to have any. However, the farmed rock I have seen seems to have loads.

Mantis are noctournal so if its during light hours its prob not a mantis.

Many are diurnal. They have very advanced eyes that can see a wider spectrum than we can and are pretty vision-oriented animals in general. The common hitchhikers like Neogonodactylus wennerae will often hunt during the day and wall themselves into the rock at night.

 

[heavenly_d3vi1]

Righ then, I'll find some bait to put in a trap tonight! No idea if it is related, but just heard the click again and looked up at the tank instantly, and saw what I can only describe as a 'puff of smoke' shooting from the back of my rock!

 

[seffieuk]

Looking forward to seeing what it is, think if I had one I would just have to set up a little cube for him, couldnt see me getting rid of such an amazing creature

Seffie x

 

[fishy55599]

Looking forward to seeing what it is, think if I had one I would just have to set up a little cube for him, couldnt see me getting rid of such an amazing creature

Seffie x

lol, your crazy!
i would want it gone straight away!!

 

[Donya]

No idea if it is related, but just heard the click again and looked up at the tank instantly, and saw what I can only describe as a 'puff of smoke' shooting from the back of my rock!

Mantis shrimp can generate those, not by hitting the rock directly but from hitting it and then spinning around quickly to run off. They can send up small plumes of debris when they do that. Pistol shrimp might cause similar things though; I don't know.

One thing I should add if it does turn out to be a mantis: if you want to remove the rock its in, try to do it with tongs or some other long-handled tool, assuming the rock is small enough to lift safely that way (if it's iffy, don't try - last thing you want is for it to smack the glass on the way down). Mantis shrimp can be surprisingly bold when a hand comes down to grab the rock. If the rock is too big and requires a hand to lift it, try to wobble it around with tongs for a little bit before going in to convince the mantis that an earthquake is happening and it should stay inside.