Can pistol shrimps rip apart shells?

[Civicman86]

So I have found another shell that has been ripped in half. Could a pistol do this? Maybe this could also be the reason my skunk cleaner is no more? I really dont think I have a mantis.

 

[ccCapt]

I doubt it. I have a pistol with a cleaner, lots of snails and lots of hermits and they all leave each other alone.

 

[Civicman86]

I wonder what is killing snails then.

Emerald crab?

 

[ReefRaff]

I have a pistol that I caught with his head and half his body buried in one of my turbo snail shell's, albit he did NOT break the shell to get to him. From personal experience though, I could not tell the differance between a pistol or a mantis shrimp snapping. I have had both. The only ones I have known in my own system to break open snail shells is the Mantis. I had to wait untill I saw the mantis then quickly reach in and grab that peice of rock out and in a buckett, use soda water premixed with salt to flood the bugger out of the rock. The fizzing gets him out, but with salt mixed with it greatly increases his chances of survival, and dosen't kill bacteria in the rock.

HTH.

 

[Civicman86]

Yeah it does. I really dont have the patience to hunt for a mantis. On top of that the things creep the hell out of me lol.

Random pics of my firefish and pistol

 

[SkinnyPete]

Don't let a mantis creep you out (sounds like a good possiblity that you have one in there). They sell traps. When you catch him, depending what kind it is, you can throw him in your sump or fuge if you have one - or even a cheap 10 gallon tank. A local reefer might take him off your hands too. Some have tons of personality and are great little pets (again, depending what kind). I recently posted about a mantis-only tank that I just set-up with a 5" peacock mantis and it's probably my favorite fish (well, creature) that I've owned.

Either way, if it IS a mantis, you'll have to remove him from your system or your clean-up crew (and possibly more) are goners.

- Skins

 

[Civicman86]

Well if I create a trap like the 20oz coke bottle one, does anyone know a good way to keep the food in there longer than 10 mins? My nass snails come right up and start to chow down when i place the trap in the water. This doesnt do to well for catching the manits