Something throwing sand

[joy13]

I got home from work tonight and fed the fish doing the normal head counts. When I got to my nano everything was normal the emerald crab was hiding, the damsel begging, and my 2 peppermint shrimp hanging around looking for a hand out. Last week I had 3 peppermint shrimp I looked around for a body and didn't find one figured that the bristleworms and crab found it before I did. Everything looked normal. since the disappearance. until it was time for lights out. Something had be digging in the sand, the sand was kicked up about 3 inches up the side of a rock. I haven't heard any clicking sounds, nothing new added. I got all my rock from people that were taking down tanks and no one had any mantis shrimp or pistol shrimp that they knew of. I have been looking around for something that might dig but haven't found anything. Any idea what I should be looking for or who I should blame for the redecorating?

I did check to make sure a power head didn't fall or something else that could have created a sand storm but didn't find anything.

 

[thincat]

Do you have any gobies? You said you have not heard any clicking or snapping. I had sand being piled up and it was a pistal shrimp redoing his hole.

 

[joy13]

No I don't have a goby.

 

[melosu58]

It could be a fish. I have my clowns all the time take their tales and sweep the sand into piles. I say sweep but the sand is really flying.

 

[joy13]

The only fish is a damsel. Whatever it is it did all this redecorating in about 15 minutes. I thought I might be the emerald crab but when I started researching there was nothing about them doing that much sand moving. It actually looks like what happens when a dog gets to digging the sand sprayed out and up.

 

[captwnder]

What kind of Damsel is it? I have a Blue Velvet Damsel and he kicks up sand storms sometimes (just like melosu mentioned). He makes very large piles of sand and if i level them out, he'll just go back and do it again.

 

[joy13]

I have a blue devil about an inch long. I tried to get a picture since it looks like something is digging under the rock but it is such a small space all I could see is rocks. I am really really bad at pictures.

When do pistol shrimp make the most clicking sounds?

Just went to change water and now there is a trench.

 

[rive1404]

Try to put food by the hole and see what happens. If you hear clicking sounds then chances are it's a pistol shrimp or a mantis shrimp. My pistol shrimp just snapped randomly.

 

[Zer0]

Actually, that would be my first guess. A Mantis Shrimp. If you know you dont have any type of animals in the tank that would do such a thing, then its probably one that you dont know about. Mantis shrimp are a very popular pest among live rock that is brought into home aquariums. What i think you should do is one night, turn off all the lights and only leave on the lunar lights or LED's if you have them, and go scouting about your tank. Look for any unusual movements. This would sure be able to help you. Mantis shrimp are quick to go back into their holes when the lights are turned on, so i would suggest to first identify it, and then turn the lights on, and watch where it goes, and if it goes back into the sand or a hole in your rock. Then you will be able to extract it more easily if you know where its hiding out lol.

 

[roka64]

No clicking, my guess would be a crab if it's not the fish....

 

[joy13]

It is the crazy fish caught him in the act. I was hoping for something like a pistol shrimp.

 

[rive1404]

Mystery solved! Crazy fish. Too bad it wasn't a pistol shrimp...

Here's a fun video:
YouTube - Pistol Shrimp

 

[joy13]

I was wanting an excuse to put up another aquarium

 

[Zer0]

Heh, its funny. Theres quite a bit of people out there that love mantis shrimp and set up species only aquariums for the mantis shrimp. They are a really colorful, and awesome shrimp to watch. There are also people that tame the shrimp to eat from their hands instead of the usual, thumb splitting. lol. They say that a full grown mantis shrimp in the wild has the punching force of a .22 pistol. Dont know how reliable that is, but i wouldnt doubt it in the wild. Gotta be tough to survive out there. Glad you found what you were looking for.

 

[match55]

haha yeah fish got crazy sometime,
my green spotted puffer like to suck sand too LOL
maybe it learned the move from the lfs watching gobies.

the video is amazing, I am glad I didn't get pistol and cleaner. haha

 

[joy13]

There is very aggressive pistol shrimp like the one in that video then there is pistol shrimp that do very well with gobies like this one
YouTube - Pistol Shrimp & Black-Rayed Shrimpgoby
Finding a pistol shrimp would have been the perfect excuse to set up a nano.

 

[rive1404]

You can buy a nano tank, buy a pistol shrimp, and say, "Look what I found!"
No one will ever know.
Pay in cash...