catching a mantis

[sailfinreef]

I just foundmyself a nice little mantis shrimp hicthiker in my 90 gal reef. he looked about 2-3" long and a dark green color. anyways, he needs to come out. what is the easiest way to get him out. mind you I have about 150#s of rock and I havent found his burrow. do those little traps actually work. anyways if someone know a way to catch himI would appriciate it.
Randy

 

[D-Trick]

If you do a search for "Mantis Trap" you will find a lot of home remedies for catching them. Also some links to ones you can purchase.

 

[pisces77]

Traps work better if you know roughly where his burrow is. Most other methods would invlove taking out a good amount of LR.

 

[Neo-Fight]

have you tried reasoning with him? :lol:

 

[theseeker]

Catching a mantis is incredibly smart predators. I had the unfortunate task of catching one in a 300 gal tank with 450 lb's of LR. I tried the trap to no avail. I was very fortunate that his burrow was in a rock on the edge of my tank that was not supporting any other rocks. I removed the rock and placed in a 5 gal pail and used a probe to force him out. So the secret is finding his burrow. Remember though, these guy's always 2 ways out of a rock, so if you find the rock you have to his escape routes or he will get away. Had it not been this stroke of luck I would torn the tank apart. He did considerable damage before he was caught.

 

[celestialvoodoo]

The guy who owns my LFS said to take out the rock he lives in and put it in the microwave. i thought it was quite funny. but im about to go to that extreme to get mine out. i hate the little buggers. they are pure evil.

 

[sailfinreef]

I thought I had found the rock he was in so I gave it a 3 min freshwater dip and he didnt swim out of it and later that day I saw him in the same area as that rock.Ive never had a mantis shrimp before so I really dont know what Im in for. I had to replace all the rock in my tank due to a horrible hydroid invasion, so I got rid of the hydroids and picked up a mantis shrimp.

 

[SaCe]

I was lucky when I found mine. He was a bit smaller than yours at the time and when I saw him peeking out of a hole in the rock he was in, I just took the rock with him in it out and put it in a bucket. I already had started a tank for propogating algae for my Tang, Rabbit Fish etc..., so I just put the rock with him in it in there.

I liked that specific rock though and once he came out, I put the rock back in my main display tank.

Keep your eye on him as close as possible, and maybe this will work for you too.

Good luck!!!

 

[mogurnda]

I had 6 in my last batch of TBS rock. I just found their holes and shook them out. Sometimes a little chiseling was necessary to convince them to leave, but I always got them out alive, and I didn't have to abuse the rock with FW or soda water.

 

[sailfinreef]

has anyone used those little traps you can buy and have them actually catch a mantis, I was thinking about getting one but I dont want to waste $20 on something that aint going to work. also this mantis shrimp seems to be all over the tank, Ive seen him on one side of the tank looking out a hole in a rock and I seen him today on the opposite end of the tank crawling in a hole in a rock. its a 90gal tank is this normal, I thought mantis stayed close to thier burrow.

 

[dank11]

Hey!
I've got a fish trap you are welcome to try
You have to take aride to pick it up
LMK