Possible Mantis shrimp in live rock

[AyeAye]

Hi guys,

I had a lot of ticking sounds from my tank in the last couple of weeks since adding the live rock, some here said it could be a mantis shrimp. Couldn't sight it.

I can't find any of the hitch hiker snails that the rocks came with and now very few amphipods left, is it a result of the tank cycling or were they eaten by the mantis?

The clicking has stopped in the last couple of days. I havn't been feeding the tank anything in these weeks, as I have no fish in there atm. How long can a typical (small) mantis live for with out food? Have I managed to starve it? Or would it have died during the cycling process?

Thanks in advance.

AyeAye

 

[yote]

Unless the ammonia spiked exceptionally high,then I doubt the cycle got him.
And I don't you could ever starve one to death. More likely he's just hiding back in a hole somewhere waiting for you to start adding stuff that he can munch on.

 

[Waddi]

Might not even be a mantis either, could always be a pistol shrimp too.
But dont kill it bud, they are creatures just like you and me, and deserve a right to live, so if you do catch it, at least try and find it a home.
Try lay out a trap, or look in your tank after dark with a flashlight.

 

[AyeAye]

Thanks for the replies.

No, I don't want to kill it, there's a demand for both Mantis and Pistol, problem is I have been unable to trap it, not taking the bait. And I don't want to put in anything in there cause I've seen what a Mantis can do...

Still not heard any more clicking.
I guess I'll have to test it, I start now by getting a small clean up crew and hope nothing happens to them.

If I knew for certain that it's there, I'd feed it and let it get bigger, catch it later. But otherwise the food in there will rot and crash my tank, no?

 

[AyeAye]

Do they go silent while they mault?

 

[yote]

Yep.They will go quiet when they molt.
Mantis really get a bad rap for no reason.Their not nearly as bad as people think.
I had one in 125 for over a year never bothered anything,including shrimp or crabs.He preferred amphipods and copepods. Watched he run from my Mandarin several times.

 

[AyeAye]

ok...well I had just spotted a head part of a husk much larger than the amphipod ones.
comparing its shape it looks more like a pistol than the wider head of the mantis.