Brutus has emerged from his self-imposed period of brooding, but still hasn't moved very far. Perhaps he will be happier once he is moved to the new tank - Biorbopolis II - in a few days time, where he can dominate until he gains other tank mates.
All appears to be quiet this morning. As I sit here peering into the tank, I can only see Minnie weaving prettily in and out of the rocks. However, peaceful though it may seem, there are strange popping sounds coming from Biorbopolis. These started a couple of weeks ago now and were quite sporadic at the outset. Now, though, they are far more frequent - happening once every half an hour or so. When we first heard it we thought it was one of the crabs losing his footing on the rock and taking a tumble. George and Orwell have a reputation of being apalling rock climbers and frequently need rescuing from difficult situations. It's not unheard of for either of them to get wedged somewhere. But I digress..
After deciding that no crab could be that bad at climbing, we began to wonder what on earth could be making the sound. The mystery remains. There is one, quite menacing, theory that we have pistol shrimps in the tank. These creatures possibly hitched a ride on the live rock that we put into the tank at the very beginning of it colonisation. Apparently, these pistol shrimps have a claw that they cock like a gun. Once they snap their claws together, it makes a sharp popping sound from where the water is compressed. Quite impressively, but also worryingly, the miniature shock wave can stun other animals very easily as the shock reaches very high temperature for a very short time. I saw a video of this on YouTube - a pistol shrimp stunning and killing a cleaner shrimp! Poor Salvador and Vincent!
There is one sticking point, though. These pistol shrimps, from what I have seen in pictures, are big, and we can't see anything that looks anything like one in Biorbopolis. Perhaps they are still small and still growing up. Maybe that's why they pop and there are no negative effects. But wait!! Could it be, could it just be possible, that a pistol shrimp was responsible for the cold blooded murder of Sebastian Teal?
Yet more reason to keep an eye on the fragile population of Biorbopolis! Not only is there a killer on the loose, but the mystery of the popping sounds goes unsolved.
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