What the heck is this thing???

[sdaccord03]

I have just purchased 40 lbs of LR from liverocks.com and I found a lot of life on my rocks. Unfortunately, aiptasia was one specimen. This morning I found another critter that kind of freaks me out. It looked like a worm of some sort with several legs. It was about 3 inches long and the girth of about the diameter of a dime almost. It looked predatory but it hid in the rocks before I could get a chance to get it out. Any ideas what this mystery guest might be?

Thanks.

JW

 

[sdaccord03]

OK just got another look at him. He looks like some kind of shrimp and is about the size I mentioned before. He hid before I could net him and get him outta there though.

 

[Fluff]

Sounds like a mantis maybe.

 

[sdaccord03]

So how do I get rid of mantis shrimp? And what will they do to my tank if I dont?

JW

 

[Fluff]

They will just go about eating your snails, shrimp and crabs. They can also take down small fish. You can try to trap him using a bottle trap or one of the commercially sold mantis traps. Do a search on mantis traps, you should get alot of info. Good luck.

 

[coralife]

flush it, it will eat all of your cleaning crew, then move to fhises and then coral. flush it!!!!!!

 

[quarryshark]

flush it!!!!!!

Or take it to your LFS. Many folks want these animals for a species tank.