Catching a mantis shrimp

[EBR]

Turns out that a mantis shrimp hitchiked in way in my tank with a recent shipment of LR from liverocks.com. He's a seemingly little guys, maybe an inch or so long. From what I've heard/read, he is an excellent candidate for eviction. Then again, I've heard that he's so small, there's no real problem (yet). Opinions?

Even so, the little bugger is lightning fast -- any suggestions on how to catch it, short of pulling out all of my rock? Is there a way to trap it?

Thanks.
Matt

 

[BillyZ]

i've heard of limited success with traps. What i've heard works best is preparing a bucket of fresh RO water. When you spot the mantis in a rock. grab just that rock and dip it in the RO water. 9 out of 10 times they dart out immediately. Replace the rock and you now have a bucket of mantis

 

[snapcrackler]

There are mantis traps like the x-terminator trap, I have heard these work OK. Otherwise keep an eye on your tank and when you see him peeking out from a rock repeatedly that may well be his chosen home for the time being, then you can dip that rock in freshwater or hyposaline water or fizzy water with the same salinity and he should shoot out.

I keep a few mantises both in their "own" tank and also the main tank, they are very intelligent and fast learning creatures, and as long as they have crabs to harass, they leave everything else alone. I hand feed mine little pieces of shrimp and they are actually pretty comical little guys because their eyes follow you around when you come up to the tank.

However bot h smasher and spearer type mantises will not hesitate too much to kill whatever they are hungry for including fish if the need arises. So they will need to be fed or evicted one or the other.

 

[snapcrackler]

oops BillyZ we musta been typing at same time.

 

[EBR]

Thanks for the info. I would really rather not have to pull out the rock. 120# of LR in a 55 gal make for a tall reef, and removing the bottom one that he has made his home means tearing apart half of it.

I'll look into the trap idea -- what do you use as bait?

Your suggestion to feed/placate him is the first I've seen. What type of shrimp do you feed the mantis? I've been feeding the percula clowns some Mysis shrimp -- is that good for the mantis as well?

 

[MantisFreak]

They are absolutely fascinating critters as long as they are in a dedicated species tank. They will grab an occasional mysis but they would rather eat your cleaner shrimp, fire shrimp, etc. If it's a smasher variety, it would rather eat hermit crabs or snails.

Here are some trapping methods http://www.blueboard.com/mantis/pest/catch.htm

 

[jhmuse]

I also had a few mantis shrimp hitchhikers on my www.liverocks.com order. The way I evicted them was with a little lemon juice. I found a used syringe from a test kit and filled it with the lemon juice. When I found the booger's hideout I gave him a good dose of the lemon juice. I had a net waiting, and when he came running out I scooped him up. I did do a partial water change to make sure there were no ill effects from the lemon juice.

I also used the fresh RO/DI water method but it did not work as well as the lemon juice trick.

HTH,

Jake

This is the one I caught:

 

[MantisFreak]

That's one I have never heard of....great info jhmuse.

This is my 666th kudo's so am I lyin' or am I tellin' the truth? Just kiddin'. I really have never heard of that method before.