Clicking sound...

before you get all riled up and go for a mantis hunt: those fish that died, you didnt say how... did they disapear or did they actualy ligitamently die? that was never explained.

as suggested, it is also a very good possibility of a pistol shrimp.
id get a flashlight. if you have a red screen over it all the better, and search for whatever it is at night when all the lights are off.
 
I had a small Mantis shrimp in my reef tank a couple of years ago and I was REALLY REALLY lucky and was able to "spear" him in the hole in the live rock in which he lived. I now have some sort of worm in my tank (not a bristle) which I only catch quick glimpses of. It has short (1/4 inch) tenatacles on its "face" and fewer legs than a bristle worm, more like a centipede. It appears to be about 3 inches long. It might be working on some leather corals I have. It doth indeed suketh to have a pest in the reef tank. Try the traps you can buy online if you do indeed have a mantis. I am starting with a DIY trap for the worm. I've "captured" lots of snails so far. Good luck!
 
i hope for your sake it isnt a eunicid worm yofishboy. they can be a real problem and have the potential to get 20 feet long. they will decimate your aquarium. i had one about the size you described and i smashed his head in with the point of a knife into his hole he hid in and then watched the rock in a container for a week before adding the coral back in. that was about a year ago so i must have gotten him.
 
Germanman said:
i hope for your sake it isnt a eunicid worm yofishboy.
Click to expand...

wierd... i was going to say the same thing. but the actual wierd part is, i was going to use that exact phrasing... and then i saw your post. haha
 
Germanman said:
i hope for your sake it isnt a eunicid worm yofishboy.
Click to expand...


Yea...I know....and I'm pretty sure that is probably what it is......I'll just keep trying to trap it and hope I don't have to do a partial or complete tear down to get to the bugger.....
 
I thought I had ruled out the possibility of it being a mantis shrimp. Then today I see that my very large green brittle starfish with a good sized chunk of the tip of an arm bitten off. I guess my next step is to get a trap and see how that works.
 
the way i caught one i had in my tank is by locating the piece of rock he's in and just take that one rock out, if possible, then you can try and poke it to death in the hole it's in, try to get it out, or if you don't mind losing the piece of live rock, just leave the rock out so he dries out, unfortunately, this only will work if you spot him

i know it all sounds cruel but it's better than your livestock getting destroyed, whatever you do to get rid of it, act soon

good luck
 
now im all paranoid i know there is a pistol shrimp in my tank cause i caught him when he was a baby in a worm trap and i always hear its clicking sound. but all this talk of mantis has made me paranoid lol. there is no way a system can go over 2 years without any unidentified fish deaths and have a mantis right? i just need some agreement here...
 
dont mean to scare you germanman... but the clicking sound is made my the smashing variety for the most part. the spearing variety are the ones that eat mainly fish, while the smashers eat mainly snails, hermits, shrimps, ect. i would say it is theoredicly possible, but i would also say it is unlikely. i think you should be safe and can assume it is a pistol.
 
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