Fountainhead
New member
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?
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?