Clicking sounds in my tank...
 

Something like a machine gun in the distance, if you've ever heard one, short burst, maybe 3-4 clicks, max. It's been going on for about a week now, but generally at night. I have a feeling it's a pistol shrimp of course but I would have expected to have seen him already. Could it be anything else? I had two mantis shrimps when I got my live rock, but I don't feel that this is a third because of the noises, apparently mantis shrimps have more clicks in chunks, a few at a time, rather than one-offs. Any thoughts? I'd just like to see the fellow, know exactly what it is.

Put a red filter over the beam of a light to view the creatures that come out at night. You can watch them all night.

Keith

Gang wars...:razz:

Sounds to me that you got a mantis shrimp hiding sonewhere in your tank. Take care, they can catch and eat fish as well as your finger!

The noise mantis shrimps make is reportedly from when they are smashing their way into a mollusc, not from their own physiology. Therefore it would more likely be a series of single clicks, rather than a single burst. I had two small mantis' when I got this live rock, one died at the end of a rogue screwdriver and the other was living in my sump up until I went nuts trying to pull a mushroom out of it and knocked everything over. He may still be there. I won't rule out another but based on the sound I am leaning towards pistol shrimp. Either way it is odd it has only just come about, perhaps I am simply hallucinating.

:rainbowa:
Hey Quinn, when you look in the mirror, does your hair look like this?

If so, I think the answer is, YES, you are halucinating!

Definitely a pistol shrimp. It's easy to miss them as they can be quite cryptic. He may be small or have a burrow at the back of your tank. I see dozens of them on good live rock shipments all the time. They're harmless. If it's a species that gets bigger, you may be able to match him to a goby when he gets bigger.

I had one for a couple years that I never saw not even once but I could hear him/her every nite clicking away ... only a few months ago I was moving some rock and found a claw in the sand :frown: ... must have squished it cause the clicking stopped after that :rolleyes:

Cheers

It's a good thing I wasn't drinking coffee or something as I read this because otherwise it would have been splattered all over my monitor by now. :lol:

Well I don't have the hair but my eyes are black dots and the inside of my mouth is yellow... :razz: