Help Capturing a Mantis in My Reef Tank

[jpywell]

I have tried everything to catch the 3" mantis in my 90 gallon reef tank. He is quite beautiful, brown body with blueish coloring near his head. I don't want to kill him but he has killed all my snails and my cleaner shrimp. I have tried removing all the rock but he went into hiding. I have tried stabbing him in desparation but he just disappears into a hole in the rock(I didn't put much effort in. I hate to destroy anything.) If someone could help recommend a method of capturing him I would give him away.
I really want to get him out of my tank. None of the traps seem to work and he is very careful to stay under a ledge even when he is out feeding.
Any good suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[RogueCorps]

Hey Jpywell,

I think you're luckier than most that you at least know where it's den is. I've heard of many people having luck carefully removing the suspect rock and using a squirt bottle to coax their mantises out.

You'll want to prepare a bowl or bucket of tank water. An inverted bowl in the middle of the container makes a nice island on which to set your live rock containing the den (above the water line). I've heard of various solutions sprayed into the den to get a mantis irritated enough for it to vacate, such as fresh water, high salinity water, soda water, and salinated soda water.

I won't decide for you, but one of those is bound to work. Once it leaves it's den it should fall into the tankwater below mostly unharmed. It would be awesome if you could keep it or offer it up to a willing aquarist here on the forum. I've been hearing too many mantis killing stories lately...

Best of luck... good hunting!

-Rogue