Tapping?

[jonah]

Do crabs tap at night? I know it could be a mantis, but I've actually had a partial glimpse of a crab before. The rock it's probably living in is going in the 20high soon. My family stays up later than I do and they say something taps pretty loud late at night.

If I put the rock in a sink full of tap water, would it drive it out?

[DrkShadow]

Good luck!

Don can tell you about the evil crabs he picked up. (no pun intended). They were left out for weeks in the winter and didn't die. :D

[Kyle McClain]

Most likly it's one of two things. A mantis or a pistol shrimp. If your fish are not dying sudden unexplained death's it's most liley a pistol shimp. If you have any clown fish they can also make some load clicking noises. The best way to get either kind of shrimp out is to use a trap.

Kyle

[rldavis]

If it's just isolated taps, it could also be hermits falling or snails hitting the glass in your tank. I hear that in our 125 every now and then. If it's more of a snapping sound, then what Kyle said could be the case.

Good luck,;)
Becky

[jonah]

My fish are a yellow tang, a mandarin and 2 yellow tail damsels and they all look good (not chewed on). My wife and son say it sounds like snapping fingers and goes in short bursts like 3-5 snaps in a row. I haven't seen any signs of crab since before the 4th of July when my plate coral disappeared:(. I actually saw some hairy legs going under a rock once back in June.

It's kind of funny because I hear clicks coming out of my freshwater tank all the time from my loaches.

Is a pistol shrimp something I need to worry about?

[rldavis]

Okay, my memory is really awful, but I think that a few clicks together is supposed to be a mantis. Single clicks are supposed to be pistol shrimp. IF that's what you have, I wouldn't worry about it. They're scavengers from what I understand......BUT, we do have a mantis shrimp (in his own tank) and when he gets going, I'll hear a series of several snaps from somewhere in his little burrow. His tank is on my desk by my computer. I can tell you that his snaps are usually several in a series with a few pauses in between.
We did have at least a couple of pistol shrimp in our 220 when we first got it, along with the EVIL crabs. If you want to read the story on that click here (http://archive.reefcentral.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&threadid=70973) and you can see the thread where Don tells our horrible, funny, and ironic tale of the EVIL crabs. Anyway, back to the subject....We heard the pistols going off in there too and they would just snap once and that was it. SO, from our experience (and the experience of others if you do a search) you can try to figure out what you have. It could be that you have all three evils in your tank, crabs, a mantis, and pistol shrimp. Although I would have to say that the pistols aren't really evil, they just make you worry about what's making all of the noise. :)
If your rock came from Florida, then there's a chance that you might have a mantis, they're pretty common in the Florida rock. One sign would be if you find broken hermit crab and snail shells in your tank, especially concentrated in one area that could be the culprit.

Good luck and if there's anything else I can tell you to help out, just let me know.

Becky

[jonah]

I've found several empty snail shells, but none of them were broken. If it's a mantis, maybe it ate the crab I saw. Most of my rocks are figi, but I don't know where the suspect rock came from. I bought it at reef shop and it looked like it came from someone's tank because it was covered in algae. The rock weighs 13 lbs and I'm planning on using it in the 20 high tank.

[rldavis]

If you're really worried and the rock is easy to remove, you can do the following.....Go to the grocery store and buy 2-3 2liter bottles of plain seltzer water. Pour this water in a 5 gallon bucket. Remove the rock from your tank and put it in the bucket for several minutes. This will effectively kill just about everything that's in/on that rock. If there is a mantis or pistol shrimp in it, they might come out. You can then rinse the rock very well in fresh water (preferable RO/DI water) and put it back in your main tank. Be careful though, I'm sure whatever dead stuff is in it will cause a mini cycle in your larger tank. The stuff off of your other rocks will re-seed this one before you put it in your 20 gallon.

OR

You can put that rock in your 20 gallon. I would recommend only putting THAT rock in for awhile...and try the old drinking glass trap. If there's a crab he'll go after the bait and get stuck in the cup. A mantis or pistol (if pistols even go for that type of bait) will be able to escape the cup and go back into their little cubby hole. Our manits has rock in his tank, but he has also made tunnels under the rock and can get from one side of the tank to the other without you seeing him at all. He's very very sneaky. They do make cool pets in their own little house, but I surely wouldn't want on in our main tank.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that we did put one of these EVIL crabs in with our mantis for about a week. We finally took it out because I was afraid that it would catch and eat the shrimp. :( I'm kinda attached to the little guy now. But during that week, the shrimp never did try to get the crab that I saw.

Becky

[jonah]

I tried the glass trick baited with some salmon flesh, but had no luck.:( I think I'll move the rock into the 20h and see if any tracks appear in the sand or maybe the tapping will move over there.

Did you see my offer on the August meeting thread?