What can do this "SNAP" sound into my reef?

[Dark]

Well, i'm not crazy... My wife did hear it a lot too!

There is a loud sound, sometimes every 5-10 minutes, sometimes two shot in a row. It's like snapping your finger, but in the water... And it's very loud, enough to hear it at the second floor if you pay attention.

I only have 2 maroons clown and a blue hippo, a cleaner shrimp... and 50 blue legs hermits. As far as I know, hermits does'nt make that sound, and the blue Hippo does'nt supposed to.

I wonder what are the critters that can make that noise? I use to read about mantis shrimp, but she is supposed to try to break hermits shell to eat them (and make that "snap" sound), but I still have all my hermits...

Any ideas?

Regards,

Dark

[TimeConsumer]

Could be a pistol shrimp or a mantis. A mantis won't always kill your hermits depending on the size of it. Try to use a flashlight at night spot it.

What kind of rock do you have?

[howaboutme]

Sounds like a pistol shrimp to me. Have you brought in anything that could have included this hitchhiker like a live rock? If it is a pistol, that's a great freebie. Have you seen burrows near or under your rock?

[Craig Borowski]

I know Clarkii clownfish can make a loud clicking sound, but am not sure if maybe Maroons can do the same.

[Alliesan]

but I still have all my hermits...


If thats not a typo.. I'm impressed you can keep track of 50 hermit crabs :D

[Andystl]

My pistol shrimp makes the same kind of sounds you are talking about. I notice it more frequently right after I feed, I think it is a defensive mechanism. That would be my guess anyway.

[Madehtsobi]

yep i agree either a pistol or mantis...i hear it from both of my tanks and i have both of those shrimps...lol

have u purchased some live rock recently?? if u did most likely u got a hitchhiker!!!

[Dark]

I did'nt add some bigs rocks recently. The last insertion was a candy cane colony, a big one. It cam with a litle piece of LR, so the colony or the LR piece can handle a hitch hiker... I'll do a search about pistol shrimp, and try to find it at night. My past attempt to fing something with a flashlight during night were unsuccessful, but it's harder when you don't know what to look for...

Thanks

Dark

[Dark]

If thats not a typo.. I'm impressed you can keep track of 50 hermit crabs :D

Lol it's not a typo... And I bought 100 hermits in one shot to clean the tank before switching to a reef (previously a FOWLR). They did the job done, and there still plenty of them. Of course I can't keep a good tracking on them... But I always can see 25-30 of them anytime, so I can consider there is the same amount hidden!

Dark

[Drae]

Put a red film over the flashlight when looking at night or download a good phone light with different colors to look. Btw a mantis can hide for months. If the sound is very audible most likely you have a small mantis shrimp. Is your rock tbs or Florida live?

[Dark]

sorry, can't tell where it came. I have 110 lbs of lr for over 4 years, only hear tha sound until the past month. It began to be noisy with the new candycane colony insertion, but can be a coïncidence and get entered before... As I put all my new frags and corals in the same month.
As I was able to see in youtube, the pistol has very long antennas, so It should'nt be difficult to see!

Dark

[howaboutme]

As you can see in some video's, it does the digging of burrows so look for those. Mine is shy but I do see it at times (not in it's entirety though) and when I flash a flashlight inside the burrow.

Get a shrimp goby to get them to pair up. Enjoy your free pistol even if it's a mystery how you got it.

[hogfanreefer]

I got two pistol shrimp with my live rock from TBS. Saw them both the day I put the live rock in. The only one I've seen since came flying out of a hole where I was burning an aiptasia. Fortunately I didn't hurt him. Hear them every day.

[Dark]

I did search for one hour without success... But I've seen some HUGES copepods and worms, and also a high concentration of zooplankton (I think) staying in the light beam.

But that night I only hear it twice, and usually I can hear it very often. So I better wait a Higher activity for trying to see something.

There's anything else making noise into a Reek tank except mantis and pistol shrimp?

Dark

[KafudaFish]

Could the hermits be falling over and hitting the glass?

[Dark]

I don't think so... When I see them fall, the water viscosity slow their fall, and they usually hit sofly the ground/glass/rock.

Dark

[acsamples79]

i had the same thing happening to me, constantly a clicking sound and it annoyed the crap out of me, i read it was possibly a mantis, i looked and looked and never found one, then last december my tank crashed while on vacation during a power outage. As i was cleaning everything up to get it going again i found a small dead mantis shrimp. SO id vote for that as well!

[Dark]

How small can be a noisy mantis Shrimp? Maybe if it is 1/4 inch long, It can be very difficult to find!

I think I'll put a bait, like dead shrimp or fish meal to attrack it during night...

Dark