Reef nutrition

Oh 'ish, I have a mantis shrimp in my tank

badbread

badbread

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So, a few weeks ago I posted this on nano-reef:

So I think I have a problem... I've been hearing clicking in my tank for about 4-5 months now (just heard a click in the tank as I'm typing this) and I always thought it was a powerhead clicking, heater turning on, something like that. I'm now thinking something may have hitchhiked on my rock.

First loss was a clownfish, I got it from a $hitty LFS and he wasn't healthy to begin with. He died over a weekend I think and his body was never found. I looked everywhere, under rocks, back chambers, on the floor and nothing. Weird but whatever, maybe the clean up crew got him... Few month's pass by, I think nothing of it and then I find a hermit crab shell with a small 3-5mm hole poked through it. Strange but again, think nothing of it. About a month passes by and I find another small hermit crab shell with the same kind of hole poked through it... Ok, now I'm thinking maybe there is something in my tank but hope its nothing and look past it.

Last week I pickup a big zoa colony I have so I could frag it, the rock is probably about 2.5" x 5", with my vortech MP20 flowing directly at it, it made kind of tunnel underneath it. When I pick up the rock something at least 2" large very quickly (quick enough to make a rooster tail of sand) scatters across the sand to the back of my tank. I try and see what it was and can't see anything. WTF was that?! It scared the 'ish out of me.

Today I'm doing some tank maintenance and noticed that just about all of my blue leg hermits are gone. I started with 6 and during feeding time they would always come out of the rockwork to eat and scavenge leftover food, but now nothing. I searched for about 30 minutes and couldn't find one.

Does this sound like a pistol/mantis shrimp type of situation? If so how do I catch the f'er? My livestock consists of a 6 line wrasse, cleaner shrimp, clown, and bi-color blenny. I was thinking of trying to do the glass cup trap thing but the fish will just go in snatch the food out.

Please help.
Click to expand...

So tonight, I'm sick, can't sleep and go and red light my tank. I look in the area I suspected this little f'er was and low and behold underneath the rock that I covered up with sand just a few days ago is all dug out and I can see something under there. I say fuck and quietly tip toe over to the freezer to grab some silversides. I cut up two pieces, give a piece to my fat bastard cleaner shrimp and drop the other piece right at the entrance to the hole under the rock. I wait about 25-30 seconds and boom, something snatches it up. Sit there with the light and about 15 seconds later, "click, click, click, click!"

So now what? How do I catch this guy? Removing the rock he's under is near impossible. I don't know what to do. The rock is in a corner of the tank and there is room for next to nothing down there. helpless in SF. ;)
 
inverted bottle trick worked very well for me for those suckers. I nabbed 4 of them way back when when I was dumb enough to buy some live rock from TBS. Take a coke bottle (the 20 ounce type). Cut the top off right where it starts to fatten up. Add a coule of silversides and push the cut out piece back into the remaining portion of the bottle backwards. If he is brave enough to stick his head out it should work like a champ.
 
First off, can I have him when you catch him?

Secondly, you can try a variety of different traps. There's the kind where you take a soda bottle, cut off the top and invert it (take the cap off). Bait goes in it, attach some fishing line to it somehow (cut holes) and put in and wait by the tank at night. It sometimes helps to poke holes in the bottle at various intervals (small enough that nothing else can get in/out those holes though)

There are also various acrylic traps out there, like fish traps etc. Some have a swing door, some have a drop door. Be careful though, they're smart. And dangerous if your fingers get near them and they're mad. But really, unless you try to pet it or pick it up w/ your hand, you'll be fine. Might try getting it used to the trap first though. I would even consider feeding it through the trap for a while before you catch it in it (if it's a manual trap) but be near the tank when you're doing this. Who knows, it might actually get stuck in there. Could also try putting some macro algae/rubble in the trap to make them more comfortable (only applies to the acrylic trap-door style.)
 
Sure thing, consider it yours.

So I just watched the little f'er play around in his burrow.

No more than 1" long, he definitely looks like this:
1256242263_3c4e9fdf83.jpg


It's claw is straight and not like the peacock mantis ones.

A nassarius went into his burrow while I was watching and again I hear the "click click click!" but the nassarius came out of the burrow ok... Do pistol shrimp strike when things go into their burrow?
 
Mantis shrimp = stomatopods. A lot more advanced than shrimp IMO.

If it looks like the picture, then it's definitely a pistol shrimp. And both pistols and mantis will strike at things that enter their burrow, either while hunting or in defense. I'll pass on it if it's a pistol. Goodluck getting him out.
 
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