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noplac2hyd

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Jan 21, 2004
Messages
19
Location
Clearwater FL
I buy 80 pounds liverock from liverocks.com and everything is perfect. i buy a 7 pound rock from a lfs and i gots me a mantis.... im now taking suggestions on easiest way to get rid and also what damage is to come any help is apprecieated

thanks
 
the worst thing that i have read that they will do is eat your snails and mabe catch any slow/small fish !! but if you dont want him and ya know what rock hes in then pull the rock put in a bucket ya can trap him using a simple glass jar with a funnel on top of it !! that way when he falls in he cant escape!! and due to ya live in florida just let him go dont kill him ya know !! depending on which type ya have some dont get that big some do !!! i got a better feeding response from using raw clam than with a cocktail shrimp :) bi-valves are there fav food
 
unfortunatly i have seen him in about 3 diffrent rocks now hes moving around... i remember they used to sell a trap for them i never knew if they worked or not or if they even sell them anymore im gonna go vist several lfs now see what i can dig up
 
I have used carbonated water to get them before. If you know he is on a particular rock, glove up and pull it. (you must be quick so that he hides in the rock when he sees your hand coming) Hold the rock down into a white 5 gallon bucket (so you can see him)and slowly pour the carb water over the rock. He will leap out of there like its a building on fire. Its good to keep a gallon or so of tank water in the bucket also, this way you can retrieve anything else that might have taken the plunge that you want to keep without making them swim in pure carb water. Once you evac him run some fresh SW over the rock and place back in the tank. I have never had any coraline bleaching or otherwise bad response to the rock from using this procedure. Best of luck to you.
 
mabe not but i bet ya lost not only the mantis but any pods/worms ect i wouldnt use carb water there are better ways to save the life on that $30 rock ya know
 
I agree with you 100% Scuba, I realize that a good portion of the pods on the rock were lost, I was able to suck up the ones I could see with an eyedropper (likely a very small percent of the actual ones in the bucket)
Should have mentioned that in the first post. I didn't really worry about it that much because I have a booming POD population in my tank. If your scarce for bugs this might not be the best approach.
 
to me the stuff costs to much to risk such an idea !! ya know unless ya wallets deeep then who cares leave the mantis in there and just add new snails when needed heheheh 100 for $30 not that bad imo i couldnt dive and get that many and would spend more than that renting a tank and boat heheheh
 
http://www.reeftopia.com/

great service and shipping !! when i order online i always end up getting one or two dead animals!! with them i ordered 150 snails and 4 fish 8 peppermint shrimp and not one death was soooo very happy with them and will order all future snails true them !!
 
Good luck with your mantis. Mine is clearly smarter then the average. I got the trap no luck, tried carbonated water. no luck, I am getting a new 110 gallon tank and Im not risking a mantis in it so I ended up taking my 30 pound rock and putting it in the tub with pure water for over 45 minutes. Still nothing.. He must be dead after that much time but I never have seen the little body.... I have no killed the entire rock too...... Makes me so MAD...
 
well id say if ya had that hard of a time i wouldnt order florida rock then !! that sucks though i know what hole mine lives in and if and when i need to get him out worst case id break the rock and force him out but never dip in carbon water or even fresh for that matter :) sorry ya had a hard time and lost your rock
 
Well better the rock then the whole tank I guess.... I was more worried about the glass breaking then replacing a few snails... They are a neat little creature. Mine was always out watching me....
 
noplac2hyd,
I have had a lot of experience with mantis hitchhikers. I had two at the same time in my LR. One cheap trap you can try that worked for me is to take an empt 1 or 2 liter container of soda. Cut it in half. Take the piece with the top and shove it, top first, into the other piece. This makes a cheap little trap for the mantis. Now place a piece of shrimp or any meaty fish food in the trap and then submerge it in a place that you have spotted him. It took me about a week to get the little bugger, but it worked out pretty good. Unfortunately I caught some other fish in there aws well so I had to reset the trap a couple of times. Good luck. My second mantis cracked my all glass tank and I broke that down in record time. :(
 
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