Mantis trapping plan. What do you think?

[Gatorfreak]

Tank has been running with LR for 5 days now. No sign of ammonia, nitrite, or nitrates yet. Judging by the sounds, I have multiple mantis shrimp. So here's my plan...
I'm not going to put food in the tank other than some Cyclop-eeze for corals, filter feeders, etc. The mantis will get hungry. Perhaps not until after they've eaten all the crabs but many people think crabs are bad for reefs anyway. Once they're hungry, I'll start putting in the Ultralife trap I just ordered.

My main concern is that I might starve something I want or cause some problem that I'm clueless about. Does this sound like a good approach to eliminate the mantis shrimps?

 

[dustybrannum]

We got our renegade mantis to come after shrimp held in some pinchers, grabber, tongs, you can choose the name for them. We got him to come out at the same time everyother day so finally when he went back into his burrow we just picked that rock out of the tank and set it in a rubber maid tub with 1/2 inch of SW. after about 10 minutes he went down to the water and we pulled the rock out and had him trapped, same thing for the third one i found. The second we placed the rock in warmed water and he shot out of the rock. good luck they are pretty neat looking. All three are now in my fuge.

 

[quarryshark]

When I caught mine, he was pratically coming out with the other invert to feed. I set the trap everyday. He became more and more comfortable with the trap and one day I caught him going into it. All it did was trigger the trap and bingo.
They are pretty smart so be patient.

 

[Gatorfreak]

Just a few minutes after posting that, I saw one for the first time. He was sticking his head out of a hole. I knew he was in that rock as I've tried FW and carbonated water dips but he refuses to come out. So I'm gonna trap 'em. Maybe someone will want him/them.

 

[Gatorfreak]

So nobody sees any harm in this approach? Harm to anything else in the tank (other than whoever the mantis eats)?

 

[quarryshark]

No thanks, one is enough.
Once you catch him, you may want to keep him. They are very cool animals, in a species tank.

 

[RocketSeason]

no harm that I can see. I never bothered to feed any of my hitchikers. I was able to get rid of a few crabs that way.

I would put the trap near the hole where you found him as soon as you get it. most likely you will catch many, many, many hithikers before you finally get your mantis.

Let us know how it works.

 

[GrndHog]

This what I did w/ some of mine not all that I caught

 

[XxTitleisTxX]

I caught one today. Ive had 2 now and they both came out with FW dips