end of my rope with the mantis (and others!)

[JJP161]

I need some good advice. I have a 75 gal. reef tank which i set up about 6 months ago. I got 150 lbs. of live rock from Tampa Bay Saltwater (which is awesome) but I am now having a huge problem with all of the hitch-hikers! We definitely have a mantis and a ton of xanthid crabs (gorilla and rock crabs!) We were up to about 11 really cool fish and now we have 2 left. We have lost 2 anemones and more than half of our snails and crabs. Three days ago we pulled all of the rock out of the tank and it is strewn throughout our living room in various buckets of saltwater. We have a bucket full of bad crabs and flatworms that have come out of the rock. Problem is, NO MANTIS yet! We have barely heard him clicking away since pulling the rock. What should we do now? I don't want to put him back in the big tank and have him continue to wreak havoc on everything. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. We don't want to kill all of our rock since it's perfect and it cost a TON of money. We are going nuts with this!! HELP!!

 

[Ricunger]

Question for you... Do you mind if it gets killed or do you want it to stay alive to give to someone that would like it?

Check the wanted forum i know there is a post from someone wanting unwanted hitch-hikers.

 

[JJP161]

doesn't matter to me. If we catch him and he's alive, I will gladly give him to someone who wants him. The question is, how do we catch him?

 

[gholland]

What kind of fish have you lost? And how big were they? I personally wouldn't be so quick to blame your losses on a mantis. I know that's the first reaction for many, but it's often not the case.

A mantis that hitchhiked in on TBS liverock would most likely be N. wennerae -- a relatively small mantis and not a likely fish killer. Certainly not an anemone killer. And one probably wouldn't bother snails or crabs of any size.

I would put all the rock back and see if removing the gorilla crabs made a difference. They seem a much more likely culprit since you know they are there and they definitely eat anemones, snails, crabs, fish, etc.

Greg

 

[Ricunger]

Just to be sure you can bait a soda bottle over night and see if he takes it.

 

[gholland]

Can't hurt, but you are much more likely to catch one during the day. Most mantis species are diurnal, not nocturnal.

 

[rlf_racing]

JJP161, I am the one looking for all the unwanted hicth hikers that people don't want. I did a map search and noticed that you are about 6 hours from me. I am not sure how you could go about shipping the little critters. Now on to the mantis, I highly, highly doubt the mantis killed any of your fish. I have two wennerea in my 75 and never had them kill a fish. One of them has been in there for the last few months. Now i am not looking to feed any hitch hikers to my mantis, I just like the strange and unusual inverts.

 

[mikchabe]

I've read that a high salinity dip will cause the mantis shrimp to exit the live rock fast.

 

[klondike4001]

If you want them dead but you want your fish to live why not an interceptor treatment? It's probably the most harsh type of treatment, but it'll work regardless.

 

[gypsyboy38]

I got one out by doing a freshwater dip. He was out of the rock like 15 seconds after it went in the water.

Give us some picks of all your hitchhikers by the way. Nothing beats a bucket filled with meanies.

 

[black_majik]

As for the crabs I will take them for live food here is a cheap and easy idea.

Get a water bottle. Cut right off the funnel area that leads to the opening.

Push the funnel ( opening from which you drink) into the bottle.

Put some food in the bottle, and most of your crabs will climb in but not out.

 

[biomekanic]

If you check the TB saltwater forum here, you'll see that the only species they've found on their LR is N. wennerae. They're small and pretty harmless. I had one in my TB rock, and he never hurt any of my fish or my inverts.

The only reason I pulled him out, was that I wanted a smaller tank for him, where it would be easier to watch him.

I've heard of them eating barnacles ( which are really tough to keep alive anyway ) and really small clams on the LR ( like under 1/3" ) but that's about it.

Crabs, OTOH, are made of pure evil and malice IME. I had a medium sized sally lightfoot that I got as part of a clean up crew that attacked and killed a false perc while I was watching. I saw the mithrax I had harrasing corals for food and fish. They went into the tank with the O. scyallarus where they finally contributed in a useful fashion.

 

[T-T-Trigger]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13085689#post13085689 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by biomekanic
If you check the TB saltwater forum here, you'll see that the only species they've found on their LR is N. wennerae. They're small and pretty harmless. I had one in my TB rock, and he never hurt any of my fish or my inverts.

The only reason I pulled him out, was that I wanted a smaller tank for him, where it would be easier to watch him.

I've heard of them eating barnacles ( which are really tough to keep alive anyway ) and really small clams on the LR ( like under 1/3" ) but that's about it.

Crabs, OTOH, are made of pure evil and malice IME. I had a medium sized sally lightfoot that I got as part of a clean up crew that attacked and killed a false perc while I was watching. I saw the mithrax I had harrasing corals for food and fish. They went into the tank with the O. scyallarus where they finally contributed in a useful fashion.

^ this.