All those Mantis Shrimp rumors...

[fourmyclowns]

Rednecks Rule! Caught that Mantis Shrimp within one hour of using the "crawdad" trap!!!! I am so relieved - It was bittersweet though. He was such an interesting creature. It's too bad there isn't a friendlier breed of them.

 

[midiman]

Thats what your supposed to call them probably. We always called them crawdads. I am not a "redneck" per say but I have my moments. Some of my friends are full blown WV hillbillies though.

And some of my friends are fast-talkin' Yankees, but they have AWESOME tanks, which is all that counts.

 

[AR15 guy]

What are you going to do with the mantis?? I am wanting to get one actually.

 

[djmpj2]

We just found our first mantis shrimp!!! He came right out today. He is killing our crabs. Our Coral Beauty and one of our clowns were taking turns carrying around a dead crab carcass and the mantis jumped right out of the rock and took it from them. Now he is in hiding again. We haven't seen our sleeper head golby all day. Is it possible the mantis killed him?

We set up the bottle trap but the clowns are so curious they keep trying to get into the trap bottle. (It is a small bottle - a water bottle). We are afraid they will go into the trap. Has that ever happened to anyone?

So, refresh my memory. What will this mantis kill? Fish? Star Fish? snails?
It's obviously already killed a couple of crabs.

TIA
DJ :x

 

[fourmyclowns]

I kinda doubt he's still alive. We dumped the trap water and a little sand into a coffe can last night. We didn't know what to do with it!


Our clowns didn't bother the trap but I think it's the way my husband handled it. He fed them flake food then set the trap with a cube of mysis shrimp as bait. The fish were full and we soon turned out the light and they went to their conch/bed for the night. The shrimp was in the trap within an hour.

 

[midiman]

We haven't seen our sleeper head golby all day. Is it possible the mantis killed him?

Anything's possible, but ordinarily the tyoes of mantis that kills crustaceans prefer them to fish, and vice-versa. THere are "smashers" and "spearers" among the many different species of mantis.

I tried the XTerminator trap that I got from drsfostersmith.com. I caught several crabs, but Iactually caught the mantis by seeing which rock it went into, pulling the rock out and dripping cool RO water into the hole.

 

[stusclan]

I've had my mantis (about 3" now) in a small plastic animal tank - it has been in there for about 4 months now. I throw him an algae tablet or flake food every once in a while. I even gave him some lr. He's happy. I found a bad crab in the tank, and gave it to "popper" as a friend - heard the noise all the way across my house. It's incredible, but there was nothing left of the crab when popper was done with it. If I had a water proof 10 gallon tank, he'd be in there. They are incredibly interesting. I'd check the coffee can in the morning you might be surprised.

 

[AR15 guy]

If hes still alive I'd pay shipping if you could send him to me.

 

[Biotoper]

The "smashers" have club-like claws and mainly attack crustaceans and mollucs, whereas "spearers" have razor-sharp scalpel-like claws and mainly attack fish (shrimp too, but not so much harder-shelled crabs/snails/etc), but I wouldn't be surprised to see a smasher ambush a fish. The smashers are the ones that can crack tanks - my old animal behavior professor worked on mantis shrimp and had a few tank mishaps.

 

[fourmyclowns]

mantis shrimp

sorry, he didn't survive the cold MT night temps. My kids were scared of him so we had to put the container on the porch to get them to go to sleep! However it's possible there may be another one and I'd be happy to send it to you. How would I care for it?Can it be in a container with tank water and occasional food or does it need an airstone? I hope to not find another one but if I do he'll be on his way!

 

[djmpj2]

We captured our matntis...now what?

We caught the mantis this morning using the bottle trap. Now what do we do? My husband wants to flush him. I'm afriad that wont kill him. We want revenge for the death of our golby! :x

Here is the little bugger:

 

[midiman]

SOmetimes an LFS will take it for store credit. I set up a separate 10gal tank for mine!!!

He went from orange to blue after a molt. Very cool creature.

 

[AR15 guy]

I want one....

 

[djmpj2]

We took him to the LFS. They took him, but wouldn't give a store credit or anything for him. But he's gone. Hopfully there are no others.

Thanks for the help!

DJ

 

[midiman]

They took him, but wouldn't give a store credit or anything for him

That's CHEAP! Not even a lousy $5? I'd go somewhere else from now on.

 

[AR15 guy]

Do you think a mantis could survive shipment from UPS or something? I would really like to get one from someone on here. People seem to be catching them like crazy. I'd give someone shipping for one.

 

[midiman]

I think they would survive just about anything. I'm keeping mine, else I'd send him to you. Start a thread asking for one, and see how you do.

 

[AR15 guy]

Thanks.