Loud Clicking noise coming out of the tank
 

Hi there,

I've been hearing this from days coming out of one of my tanks now. its a loud clicking noise, the first time I heard it, I panicked because I thought my tank was cracking or something but it was not. its a loud clicking sound, that's the only word I can think of to describe this loud noise coming from the tank. it happens more often when the lights are out at night though.

Does anybody know what could that be?

Sound to me you have a hitchhiker mantis shrimp or pistol shrimp.

Yeah I kinda read that before somewhere. Are those a bad or a good thing though?

I have the same sound & I know there's no mantis in my tank because a couple of crabs are thriving. A mantis would take care of any crabs in short order. I kind of doubt mine is a pistol shrimp either, I've never been able to see it if it is. Think I may have read somewhere that even certain crabs can make this noise with their body armour.

Pistol. Mantis clicking would be shells being broken open. If you have no broken shells its most likely a pistol.

I have had one 5 years. Never seen it but click click click.

I believe he is responsible for my missing harlequin and 3 peppermints.

Never bothered any fish.

I have those sounds also... Come and goes. Usually lots of clicks, then nothing for awhile (weeks or months) then it starts up again for awhile, usually in the evenings, when the lights are out.

yeah, maybe that explains two of my cleaner shrimps went missing some time ago.

Now that I remember, at the beginning when I brought all my LR for my first tank, I saw a small "lobster" like little creature now and then. kinda brownish color, but I remember it looked like a little lobster.

Uh, yup... that might explain it.

I have the same thing in my tank and I've found that many things actually do it. I thought it was my pistol but when I found him dead in the sump. I've noticed my strawberry top snail do this thing where he twists and pulls himself into the glass really quick and makes a cracking sound. He's been incapacitated for the past week and I still hear it. Haven't seen evidence of another pistol or a mantis... so I leave it to one of the mysteries of the tank.. sorta like how a hawaiian rock boring urchin showed up in my tank without having put anything in my tank for over 6 months and the only thing that went in there in 6 months before that was a piece of dead rock that had been sitting dry for over a year. Weird...

Yup... pistol.

Best of luck with the hunt

just in reply to people saying no broken shells means no mantis... there are tons of speices of mantis, i have one in my reef thats only about a inch long if that, he doesnt go after any inverts, he takes food from me if i put it at his hole. but he clicks all day long, the clicking is usually them just borrowing in LR

Yup, I've had the same thing. They smack the inside of their cave to build additions :) Too small to kill any crabs, but big enough that I could hear it 2 rooms away.

I find if it is a pistol shrimp it usually sounds like your fingers snapping, a mantis sounds more like something clicking on glass.

Chris

im sure i have a pistol as well. Ive seen it a couple times under the rock at night but havent seen or heard anything for months. Then last week, click click click. I dont believe ive lost anything in the tank from it though. Be interesting when i start moving rock around when i switch over to my 45gal...

I had two hitchhiker mantis and a 1 pistol in the very first 25lbs of live rock i ever bought.
The big difference i found was the mantis click seemed to be three clicks in a row where as with my pistol it was one loud click. For a long time the mantis never harmed anything in my tank.....but after about a year i had some crabs and a pepperment shrimp go MIA. I had cut back on my feedings and i think thats when they started wanting more than frozen mysis.
Its something that i would personally keep an eye on and i hope that it is a pistol. Mantis Shrimp can be beautiful creatures and are highly intelligent and fast...but are nice in there own tank and not your reef. :biggrin:
Best of luck.

mantis haters! lol. or just hope its one of the speices that doesnt grow over an inch like mine.

I had the same thing, 3 clicks i saw him one day and ripped out the rock he jumped out on the floor. Was a peacock mantis full of color ended up giving it to someone on here. Never had him kill anything tho and no holes in shells

I'vve heard it in my tank too.....usually after the lights go off. I later discovered that a few of my Trochus snails were twisting around in their shells pretty violently... and it made a clicking sound on the glass....mystery solved...for me at least

my hermits always make noise when there shells hit the glass. especially when they climb the silicon and try to escape

Based on this comment it is definitely a mantis shrimp. Impossible to catch, i had to tear my tank apart to get mine out. This was the sole reason i bought marco rock for my new 72 bow and used the rest of the old live rock in the sump..