Weird Live Rock Phenomenon

[GoatmealJones]

My reef contains 50 lb of aquacultured live rock. There is a ton of life on it that survived the curing process (featherdusters, some worms, other filter feeding inverts, among others). Im having this weird issue where randomly a jet of white matter will come spurting out of different areas of the rocks. Does anybody know what this could be? Ive also been hearing a lot of popping sounds which I havent been able to locate, and I assume its some hitchhiking malicious invertebrate. My red flasher wrasse (1 inch) has gone missing and its usually always out swimming. I suspect it might have been killed by some creature described above. The spurting of white matter is sporadic, so unfortunately I cannot provide a photograph. Any help is appreciated.

 

[Seamore2001]

I'd guess pistol shrimp. Unless it's a mantis

 

[starypotter]

Oh following here, I have a spot in the rock that keeps spitting out sand as well. I also have a pistol shrimp but it's barely an inch long and it lives in a different rock. I do have fire and bristle worms.

 

[MTBake]

The white matter could be something spawning or something digging in sand. Hard to tell without a pic.

The clicking noise could be a mantis shrimp. I had one hitchhike in on live rock from the gulf of mexico. It now lives in a 10 gallon species/unwanted critter tank.

 

[GoatmealJones]

Do the mantis shrimps come out during the night and can they be seen using the red flashlight method?

 

[Mastiffsrule]

I’m going w Seamoore2001, it could me mantis but the pop or hammer would make me think it be a pistol. Had 1 in my tank years ago, like late 80’s. Drove me nuts, thought it was going to break the bottom of the tank

 

[GoatmealJones]

Are pistol shrimps generally predators of fish?

 

[sfin52]

Are pistol shrimps generally predators of fish?

they can be. I would suggest a red light and visit your tank in the middle.of the night. Also you could try a popbottle trap.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Spawning. Strars and snails do it.
Popping , mantis and some ghost shrimp donit.
When I found my clicking noise finally, it was only millimeters long and living in the sand. Ugly bugger. I was pretty sad when the clicking stopped years later.

 

[MTBake]

Are pistol shrimps generally predators of fish?

IME, pistol shrimp don't go after fish unless they're bothering them at their burrow. I keep one in my main tank. It is paired with a yellow watchman goby.

Mantis shrimp are very smart and some do prey on fish.

The mantis I have didn't show himself for 6 months or so. I would hear the occasional click before I finally saw it. The pistol shrimp comes out all the time with its goby. I never see either after lights out.

 

[Seamore2001]

I should have added in my original post. Pistol shrimp aren't likely to attack fish unless the fish is trying to get at the shrimp (as @MTBake) said. And I don't think the typical pistol shrimp we'd have in our tanks can actually kill a fish with its "snap". But they do make that snapping noise and they do dig in the substrate and under rocks, in the process kicking up lots of sand and dust.

Some mantis shrimp are very much piscavores, primarily the spearer kind of mantis. But the spearer kind don't make the snapping noise (that I know of) - that's restricted to the other kind, the "smashers". These kind have a kind of club-shaped forelimb that they use to bash open snails and crabs and other hard shelled animals - they also batter away at rocks in order to enlarge holes to live in. I reckon they'd take a fish if they could, but fish aren't the primary food source for smasher type mantis shrimp that make the clicking noise as they batter away at crustaceans and rocks. Mantis can live in the rocks or in burrows in the sand and under the rocks.

This is kind of a long-winded way of saying that you may have a pistol shrimp, or you may have a mantis shrimp, but the presence of either may not be related to the disappearance of your flasher wrasse.

 

[AlexG]

There can be many different organisms making those little white jets which could be detritus, sand, or spawning. I would not jump to a conclusion that there is a mantis in the tank as pistol shrimp will also make popping noises. Even if there was a mantis or a pistol shrimp it does not mean they are the culprit. Both pistol shrimp and mantis shrimp when they are small can be very elusive and might live mostly in a rock. The fish disappearance might be coincidence. There are a wide range of predators that can hitchhike of live rock but I would not be too worried unless you start to see a pattern of losses. If it is a mantis shrimp clicking they will likely prefer to eat other inverts: sails, crabs, shrimp, long before they attempt to grab a fish. I used to keep small smasher mantis shrimp in my reef tank and they never bothered the fish. I have directly observed my spearing mantis generate a clicking sound before when crabs or serpent stars got too close. A spearing mantis though will typically make themselves known as they like to observe open water areas of the tank and when they are hungry for a fish they are not confined to a simple ambush tactic and will openly swim out and attack in some cases. Mantis shrimp sometimes venture out at night but that red flashlight won't hide your observations as mantis shrimp have the ability to see red. All this being said about mantis shrimp I think that stepping back and observing your aquarium for patterns is your best bet to see if anything else starts to disappear. I would suggest though since you have live rock with an abundance of life in the tank that you do take a look at night with all the lights off in the dark to look for bioluminescence.

 

[Mariette]

Popping? Sounds like a pistol shrimp. I have one in my DT w watchman goby. Never had an issue except that it burrows at night causing rocks to fall over. Grr

I also have the occasional spurt of dust and can’t fogure out what it is. My tank’s been running 2 years. No rock added since the beginning. No sign of a mantis shrimp. No corals. As someone mentioned above, could be a snail spawning? I’m at a loss. Whatever it is, I assume it’s not dangerous because I’ve never had anything disappear on me. Except a cleaner shrimp but I hear they do that somehow

 

[GoatmealJones]

Anyone have a link to a red flashlight of the correct spectrum I can buy to night hunt?

 

[GoatmealJones]

Update: multiple snails have been found dead, but the shells remain uncracked. Found a random shell-less crab dead on my sand bed last night which I never bought or introduced knowingly. Now, I just found my firefish dead. He used to hide in a certain hole in my LR and was perfectly healthy yesterday. It looks as if it was clawed by something

 

[Mariette]

Update: multiple snails have been found dead, but the shells remain uncracked. Found a random shell-less crab dead on my sand bed last night which I never bought or introduced knowingly. Now, I just found my firefish dead. He used to hide in a certain hole in my LR and was perfectly healthy yesterday. It looks as if it was clawed by something

Perhaps the shell less crab was the culprit?
Hopefully, now that it’s dead, you won’t have any more issues

 

[Mariette]

Update: multiple snails have been found dead, but the shells remain uncracked. Found a random shell-less crab dead on my sand bed last night which I never bought or introduced knowingly. Now, I just found my firefish dead. He used to hide in a certain hole in my LR and was perfectly healthy yesterday. It looks as if it was clawed by something

Perhaps the shell less crab was the culprit?
Hopefully, now that it’s dead, you won’t have any more issues

 

[GoatmealJones]

Unfortunately the crab died before the fish and im still hearing the noises coming out of the rocks. Going to try to trap it with a kit at this point i think

 

[Mariette]

Unfortunately the crab died before the fish and im still hearing the noises coming out of the rocks. Going to try to trap it with a kit at this point i think

Trap “it”? Have you seen it? Do you know what it is?

 

[Lukas75]

With live rock you can get a number of things and you may have a battle going on for supremacy between different hitchhikers. Each individual symptom might be caused by a different animal. What do you mean by "shell-less" crab? And was it dead? Or did you find a molt?