Could this have killed my mantis?

[Fountainhead]

I'm 7 days into the cycle of the first shipment of TBS rock. My cycle has been gentle, and I've had no ammonia over 0.25. Nitrites maxed at 0.3, and are now at barely 0.1. I had (at least) two large mantis hitchhikers, two to three inches long. Yesterday, I pulled out their rock in an attempt to flush them out. I didn't dunk the rock, but I used a turkey baster to squirt ro/di water into their holes, and some surrounding holes. We went "mano a mano" for about ten minutes. Unfortunately, they had more "manos" than me, and I had to put the rock back in the tank with the Mantis' intact. I didn't see them the rest of the day.

Today, I came home to find one of them dead outside his hole. Now, I'm not weeping over the mantis as I wanted him out, but I'm wondering now what killed him. Could harrassing him with the ro/di water have done him in? I immediately tested my water, and I'm still showing 0 ammonia, and 0.1 nitrites. I guess I'm just a little concerned that something died in the tank like that for no apparent reason. Do you think I killed the thing, as opposed to something bad happening with my tank?

 

[goblinsharkman]

dumdum...dumdum...dumdumdadum
Ahhhhh....JAWS...lol
No idea

 

[Gonodactylus]

Freshwater dips don't usually do in healthy N. wennerae, but they could kill a weakened one. This could happen from shipping stress, injury if you were poking too hard, or the animal attempting to molt. There are a couple of other considerations.

1. You had more than one N. wennerae. They can and do kill one another. Again, this is particularly likely if the animal molted.

2. While overall water parameters may be good, these stomatopods live in cavities in rock. Nitrogen levels can be much higher in a rock if something such as a boring sponge or bivalve dies in the rock. I don't know how much circulation you have, but local fouling in dead areas can be a real problem.

Roy

 

[Fountainhead]

Well, there were two that I know of. They were in the same rock. The other one appears to still be with us, as I saw him peeking from his hole this evening. Nothing else in the tank (a few hermits, a porcelin crab, and an emerald mithris crab) appear to be any worse for wear. Like I said, I'm shedding no tears for the mantis...I'm just a little concerned about what caused him to die like that.

Can you tell I'm new at this?

 

[Dexter1334]

I had two red and one green adults in the second shipment from TBS for my 125. I caught them, using ice cold fresh water flush on one and they survived just fine.
I put them all together in a ten gallon tank, now I have one red one green and the other red is gone. I also had about 200 babies after a couple weeks in the ten gallon.
I think if u have two males or two females they may get territorial and kill each other. Just a guess as they are very agressive animals.
There are still several small ones in the 125 and they haven't caused any problems yet even after four months.