mantis shrimp everywhere

[rickmel]

I bought 40lb of live rock from liverocks.com about 2 weeks ago and there was one that was the size of a softball and there was a hole in the bottom of it the size of a quarter I looked in it with a flashlight and seen something moving so I carefully pulled it out with tweezers and it was a mantis shrimp about 2 1/2 inches long so I put it in my refuge and put the rock in my 125 gallon tank last night I could see something moving under the rock I took the rock out shook the heck out of that thing and out of the same hole 4 more baby mantis shrimp fell out they was smaller than some of the brine shrimp I have seen I do not know if there are eggs in there or what I took pics at 18x zoom but I can not get how to make the pic small enough to post it sorry has any of you had this happen [/b]

 

[LittlePuff]

Yikes!! 8O What fish are you planning to put in there? Triggers and puffers will eat the mantis shrimps.


Kim

 

[rickmel]

I have 2 blue damsels 1 pink damsel 1sand sifting fish 2 maroon clowns

 

[rickmel]

I have 2 blue damsels 1 pink damsel 1sand sifting fish 2 maroon clowns

 

[quarryshark]

Can you qt this rock for a few days? See if anything else shakes out.

 

[rickmel]

I put it in my refuge tank

 

[austinsdad]

Sure the babies weren't pistol shrimp? One claw larger than the other?

 

[lando]

I just read (on this forum) of a great idea on getting mantis shrimp out of rock. Move the rock to QT, set it on eggcrate that is elevated by PVC. Put a chunk of shrimp on the bottom of the tank and wait for them to come out.

 

[formanbob]

Or, i will buy the rock with the shrimp in it...

 

[Brad]

Hey Lando...the mantis will simply swim down, grab the food, then swim right back up into the rock again. Unlike crabs, they are pretty good swimmers.

 

[Brad]

I guess you just snatch the rock out of there really fast when they make their move. They are pretty quick though. You could buy yourself a few seconds by firmly attaching the food the something so that the mantis has to tug and attack it to get some off.

If you miss on the first attempt, you'll have to wait a while. They'll grab the food and take it back into their rock. After that, they won't be tempted so easily since they've got a good meal.

 

[rickmel]

I am pretty Sure the babies weren't pistol shrimp because they have the different colored eyes that they can stick way up an move them in different directions and I have nothing ageist the little guys I just do not want them in the mane tank I will them in the refuge tank I like to watch them and thanks for the offer formanbob to sell the rock but the rock has the most things growing on it

 

[austinsdad]

eyes that they can stick way up an move them in different directions

Oh yeah.

 

[mybug]

Quite frankly, I couldn't recommend rock from Florida

Quite frankly, because of mantis shrimp I am not sure I could recommend live rock from Florida at this point.

My so called rock crabs went after my clowns within hours of being introduced on Saturday. Luckily I got them out before the innocent clowns were taken.

Now I have a mantis to deal with, about an inch and a half long. I yanked the rock and poked around it while it was placed in one of my five gallon water change buckets. Nothing. I then rinsed the rock with RO/DI I have standing ready for top off, nothing. I then poured hot tap water on as Fenner suggests, nothing.

I put the rock back in and he is back before evening falls.

If that son of a gun gets my clowns I'll be ticked to say the least

My rock from Florida is beautiful but it isn't worth losing fish over.

I suppose I'll go home tonight and find my hermits and snails gone.

This really has me bent.

 

[mybug]

And to make matters worse

He was in Live Base Rock that was really taking on good color and the hot water really hurt it bad. That particular rock (which has lots of holes for him to hide in and weighs about 20lbs has lost much of its color and might as well be dead base rock at this point.

Kind of takes the value out it - you know.

 

[PatM]

 

[revhtree]

If you want the good stuff sometimes you have to use a little joes juice. You can get LR from the lfs, and may not have any hitchikers, probably not get any coraline, coral, starfish, and other cool things. The good def. outweigh the bad.

 

[Zack]

MY gosh it amazes me to see the misunderstanding of mantis shrimp from the gulf and keys. I have posted this quite a few times and happy to do it again, but please read carefully. Our rock is full of life which does include mantis shrimp, these mantis are VERY different then the ones that come in on imported rock from Fiji. We keep many mantis in our aquariums that are hand fed and very scared of fish. I have two in my gallon clam/zoo tank that just eat off the rock and sometimes I will feed a small frozen fish. These guys freak out each and every time they are near fish. Please remember this when thinking about our mantis shrimp.

 

[Zack]

PatM
That was a very offensive post to our hard and dedcated work to aquaclutred LR and I hope you will not just go around posting our "new" domain name without seeing our rock.

Zack

 

[PatM]

Zack, have seen your rock in person. Did not mean to offend. foot is in mouth!
I have removed my post, please accept my apology.