Clicking In Tank?????

[JAYDEE]

Every so often i hear a clicking sound coming from inside my 125 reef tank. The sound is 2 or 3 clicks. Some days i hear them , some days not. I never purchased any pistol shrimp and have not noticed any mantis shrimp, or for that matter anything missing or dead! The only hitchhiker that came with my live rock that i noticed is a small crab. The crab is speckled white and black and seems to eat algae like my emrald crab.
Any idea what clicks?

[gcvt]

Do you have any clownfish?

[JAYDEE]

yes...i have one Sebae clown.

[Boogiechillin]

Clowns can actually vocalize a fair bit, and Sebaes are louder than most. IME, it sounds more like a sharp grunting/grinding noise than a clicking, but this could easily be what you are hearing. Pistol shrimp can actually be quite tiny (under 1") and still make a fair amount of sound, and I probably caught a half dozen or so in my tank over a year when I was shifting things around. You might want to sit up at night for a couple days with a red light and see if anything shows its face...inverts can't see into the red spectrum, so they typically won't run. But, if nothing is going missing, I wouldn't worry too much about it.

[Awestralian]

I get that noise too. Havent seen any Mantis shrimp either, but i have got a couple of decent sized crabs that came in my liverock.
I suspect its them, as i didnt have clowns when i first heard the noise.

Got crabs?

[mogurnda]

Another vote for pistol shrimp. They make a very audible crack, we can hear ours in the next room, and you almost never see them. I have at least 8 in the tank, and for the first several months I would just see them as motions in the cracks of the rocks during long periods of observation. A few have become more outgoing recently, but it still takes some quiet sitting before they expose themselves.
IMO they are harmless, and add a bit of diversity.

[JAYDEE]

I tried to use a flashlight the other night to see what made the clicks......
funny enough, every time i shined the light where the sound was I had my coralbanded shrimp in the spotlight. I know they dont make the noise so I assume that maybe it provokes this noise from whatever makes it.
oh well... thanks for the help anyway.

[Kit Walker]

hey Awestralian,
Just be very wary of your crabs. Especially if they are sandcrabs or similar type of crab (not hermits though!). I had a small sandcrab and rockcrab come in with live rock and they do prey on fish. Even smaller ones can take something like a cleaner wrasse, and something like a Mandarin fish won't stand a chance. I found out the hard way when I lost my Mandarin fish. I just don't want anyone on this forum to lose a fish the way I did.

[Awestralian]

I dont know what these are - they arent hermits (i do have some hermits) they look more like minature versions of the kinda crabs seafood ppl love to eat. Mudcrab type look...

[OrionGirl]

Check here: http://www.blueboard.com/mantis/pics.htm to see if your crab is similar to one of these.

[JAYDEE]

nope...its def. not any type of shrimp. Its body is the same as a emrald crab, but it has black and white markings and red eyes and pincher tips. It refuses to vacate a hole its in. it just picks algae off the rocks around the hole by streching out an arm.

[mogurnda]

There are several species of Mithraculus that look like emerald crabs. Most have the same habits. Do the pincers look like spoons at the ends, or are they pointy?

[littleprince]

Also, in terms of clicking, depending on how loud, and stuff.
My hermit crabs can make a clicking.
They are so clumsy, sometimes when they walk near the glass, their shells hit it, and make a light clicking sound. Hard to explain. i'm sure people who have hermits know what I'm talking about.

[Awestralian]

Jaydee - sounds like the type of crabs ive got.
(In my tank i mean :P)
I have two that dont come out - just move around the cracks in the LR, and one chops off bits from around its main hole.

I thought this was all i had - but after my tank cracked and i had to move everything guess what fell into the bottom of the box i put the liverock in for transport?
MANTIS SHRIMP!

It now makes me think i might have more...

Anyways try this - if it doesnt work then you can be pretty sure your crab is the clicking culprit.
Get something appealing like a couple decent chunks of shrimp or similar.
At night, when the lights are out and the room is as dark as possible, drop the bits of food down into the very front of the tank. Sit and wait with a torch at the ready, and see what comes out to eat.
If Mantis appear - shine the torch on em - apperantly this blinds them and they wont move for a short while. Quickly scoop it up and do what you will with it.
If no Mantis come out then you can start breathing again :P

[JAYDEE]

good advice! I've been mantis hunting w/ no luck yet.
After all the reading I've been doing on them. I may put it in its own tank if i get it!

[Awestralian]

If you can see which rock/s it/they are in - you can grab the whole rock out and freshwater dip it to get him off the rock too.
I dont know, however, what this does to other organisms on the rock.
Some others here might be able to tell you.

[OrionGirl]

Brief exposure to FW shouldn't damage anything but sponges, but a better method is to locate the hole the mantis is in, and use a baster to squirt the FW just in that hole. This way, the entire rock isn't exposed, and the mantis usually comes out quickly--have a bowl of tank water ready to catch it in.