Pistol or mantis, tell tell signs?

[Tankssy]

So yhea, here is another "what is making that sound" thread. I have done so much research I think my head is beginning to jumble it all up.

One thing I would like to know is how fast can a pistol fire off? I have a small Candy pistol and he pops off maybe one shot a day. My husbands old tiger few times a day, but nothing major. What I heard last night tho was different.

Lying in bed last night this was the order we heard...
5-6 pops one right after another in quick succession, then 1, then 2, then another followed by another 3 in quick succession. I also THINK i found a spot where rubble looks to be being deposited. The rubble made me think pistol, the quick fire popping is mantis tho isn't it? Do mantis rubble up around their burrows as well?

We have tried the bottle trap twice now, once with a silverside and once with a piece of shrimp. should we keep persevering? If so what food works best in traps? We think we know what rock it is in, but here is the kicker, it has some awesome coraline on it and its the biggest in our tank. We paid a good price for it so we really don't want to "kill" the rock as its such a beautiful rock which we picked to be "the" rock for our tank..

We finally got tank cycled and we have been trying for weeks to catch or heck even spot this lil critter. We need some help in trying to figure this out. So if anyone has any advice (other than killing rock, sorry, not an option) we really need it. Ta in advance.

[Calappidae]

Mantis shrimp will use rubble to close up the entrance to their burrow. Especially N. wennerae which closes up every night. Infact, they need building material to survive molting.

Hitchhiking species of mantis shrimp aren't threatening, they will kill maybe some small snails and hermit crabs, or a small goby, perhaps tiny bubblebee and sexy shrimp, etc etc but it shouldn't be a threat to fish.

But anyway, yeah calling it is a mantis. Pistols don't fire in succession. (atleast not often)

Another thing is making sure your equiptment isn't making a popping sound, I once was puzzled for about a month hearing clicks, until I relized my skimmer was just making it and the sound ceased since repair.

[Tankssy]

Small fish, so my lil yellow clown goby could get killed? He is planned on being our first fish on stocking list as I'm closing down the tank he currently inhabits. This lil critter is driving us nuts on trying to find him...grrr

[sam.basye]

I have a pistol shrimp that will fire is clicks/pops as frequently as it wants. Sometimes you'll get one loud pop, or many in succession if a crab or snail is too close to the burrow. As many as it takes, I've heard 10+ recently. It only takes the amount of time for it to open is claw before it can pop it again which is rather quick.
I don't have any experience with mantis though, so it could also be that, idk.
Good luck catching it! Mine is outgoing and runs all around the tank, especially when food is present so I get to see him a lot.

[Tankssy]

Well still no look at or capture of mystery "popper". We did add a YWG few weeks back who has settled in. At first it was wary of the pops but now it just ignores them. We have 3 Scarletts and they still going. Lost few snails but not sure it was our guest or something else. We will figure this out..hopefully. =/

[theGrimPeeper]

My Mantis would pop only once. I got lucky and could see his eyes glow. He was hiding in a rock and I was able to remove the rock. I couldn't believe how loud the pop was.