This clicking sound is annoying me

[kwirky]

About 3 times a day we hear a clicking sound coming from the tank. It's been going on for about 2 months now. I don't know if it's a mantis or not. One day my sister and I saw a snail going crazy waving it's shell side to side hitting it against the glass making the clicking noise, but I don't know if hearing it so often means the other clicks we're hearing is that same snail.

One end of the tank is a snail graveyard, too, so I'm thinking there's some sort of predator in there. About 5 dead snail shells at that one end. I put a shrimp trap there a couple days ago but still haven't caught anything.

It's getting quite frustrating. Any suggestions?

[corpusse]

why not try a trap?

if you have a snail graveyard I think you probably have a mantis..

[Delphinus]

I get clicking out of my ritteri tank too. I'm *fairly* certain it doesn't have a mantis in there but what I do have is about .. probably around 12 or so crabs in there ranging in size from 1/4" to 1.5". So maybe you have a crab, not sure. I do lose more snails then I think I ought to be losing (AND the little buggers make sure I can't keep any corals in there, yum yum).

In my case the tank is 30" deep and I'm 5'9" so I can't really reach the bottom, so they see me coming, and a pest crab only seems to catch the dumb cleaner shrimp ("YUM FOOD YUM!! .. Oh.") My only hope for removal is tearing the rockwork apart which I can't do yet on account that touching or moving the anemone usually means a tankfull of dead fish. I'm having LOADS of fun with this tank these days. Hope your situation goes better than mine..

[justinl]

if the shells dont look like they have any damage (big holes) then i doubt its a mantis. when do you generally hear the clicks? night or day? the vast majority of mantids are diurnal which means you should hear from them more often during the day than the night.

so what clicks? well mantids obviously, but also, clownfish (and a few other fish), pistols, snails (youve heard that one), and visitherm stealth heaters.

[0sprey]

If you included hermits in your cleanup crew, they're probably responsible for exterminating your snails. They could be clinking shells against the glass, too.

[kwirky]

wI've had a trap in there for about 3 days not, leaned against a rock in case it's a crab. The snail shells have no visible damage.

I really notice the clicking when the lights are on. I do have a stealth heater, and I have 2 cinamon clowns.