Help Getting Rid Of Mantis!!!!

I'm not sure about the 'cold water' method, however I heard somewhere that placing the rock in high salinity water for a minute or two sometimes will make the unwanted guest flee from the rock.

I also read somewhere that if you are using the bottle and shrimp bait method that fresh (not frozen) shrimp may work better.
 
instead of using triggers, you can put an octopus in there, then when it has eaten the mantisyou can catch it. they are a lot easier to catch then mantis, and are noramlly less shy.
 
How big do you think they (mantis shrimp) have to get before they break aquarium glass? The "clicking" in my tank has been getting louder and some people say it is hermit crabs, but I'm not so sure. I don't want to wake up one morning to an empty fish tank on my living room floor!
 
I have not read anything about size and subsequent damage caused but my mantis shrimp make a lot of noise! I do not have any other critters in my tank yet so I know it is one of the two. They make a loud clicking noise (I've read that the noise is the mantis hitting rock to create a burrow). I have an acrylic tank so hopefully he is not strong enough to damage or crack my tank.
 
No Luck Yet!

No Luck Yet!

If there is a RC medal for patience, I think I am a good nominee!
No Luck Yet at catching my unwanted guests! I still see the "Young Dumb" out and about but not the "Old Smart" one. I left the bottle trap in the tank but he still has not managed to figure out how to enter the bottle. I also reset the X-treme Mantis trap and NO LUCK.

I have grown attached to the pretty Christmas tree worm that shares the same rock as the Mantis. I am stalling at doing anything drastic to the LR because I don't want to kill it. Does any one know how 'hardy' the Christmas tree worms are?

I think I will buy a trigger fish and let it have a try at the mantis. At least I would finally have a fish in my gigantic display of rock.

By the way, I can only find 2 snails in my tank (intially, more than 10 hitch hiker snails visible at any time). So, you think I can starve out the Mantis?!?! Then I could try the HowardW netting method of capture!

Cass aka "the fishless one"
 
If you just want to remove him and be done with it...........you'll just have to remove that rock from the tank, place it in a shallow rubbermaid tub with several inches of your tanks saltwater, and physically remove the little bugger from his tunnel using a wooden skewer or a long narrow cleaning brush or a long piece of airline tubing or whatever. You can also try using a large syringe filled with saltwater with a piece of tubing on the end and try blowing him out.
 
X-mass tree worms aren't the most heardy things in the world. I wouldn't do anythign drastic caus ereplacing it would be a bear, since the Indopacific ones aren't nearly as dramatic, and getting caribean ones is not easy.

It may be time for you to draw up truce papers with the mantises. Provide them with snails and hermits, and they should leave your fish alone. Its when they get hungry with no easy meals or a ground dweller stumbles into their burrow that fish dissapear.
 
I'm guessing that your house guests are the same species as the one I keep in a small reef. Mjollnir lives with Fish and shrimp he doesn't eat. I even have large snails that he doesn't mollest.
I just keep him supplied with hermits and small snails to suppliment the krill he takes from my fingers.
 
I cannot believe my eyes!

I cannot believe my eyes!

One week ago, I saw the green Mantis cruising around a piece of LR. I startled him and he vanished. I continued to hear his familiar "clicking" noise and stewed over how long he would haunt me. I then realized that I had not heard the usual clicking noise and wondered what he and his red Mantis side-kick were up to.

Yesterday, while checking my sump and the flow from the bulk heads down into my trickle filter ...I see a tail....?a tail?. I grab a flashlight and .... drum roll.... MY GREEN MANTIS! How did you get in there (he did not respond)? I then felt sad at the thought that the little bugger had suffered a lonely and painful death. No sooner than I had that thought, he ran to the back of the filter, and into the water flow. HE'S ALIVE! It appears that he, SOME HOW, climbed up 24 inches (maybe up my gorgonian), into my prefilter, then navigated into my 18 inch standpipe, descended down the drain tubing, only to land on the sponge covering my bioballs which are there to catch large debris!

I planned to take him out last night but was not able to do so. Now this morning, I can't find him. I will seek him out today hopefully before he finds his way down into the bioballs!

Isn't this hobby interesting?! (No word yet on the red Mantis. I have not seen him in weeks but that is not unusual!) Two snails remaining!

Cass
 
Mantis caught! Home needed!

Mantis caught! Home needed!

I have recovered my "little booger" from my sump area (the greyish colored mantis). All of you Mantis Lovers can breath a sigh of relief, HE'S ALIVE and WELL. He is currently hanging out in a mini tank with salt water and aeration only. He needs a loving home. Please PM ASAP me if you are interested in acquiring him! I have no desire in keeping him and hope to rid my tank of his red buddy (the 2nd Mantis which I haven't seen for a awhile).

Cass
 
i recieved some TBS rock in early march and have found 3 mantis so far. I found these to be very curious animals. I have one of those metal claw grabber things i use out in the garage while working on cars. When i see were the mantis is i place the grabber buy his hole. they are always curious and comes out to attack the grabber. I slowly draw it away alittle and he follows it out of his hole. When it is out enough, I grab him. It has worked pretty good. Some times it takes alittle time and have to come back again. I have caught two this way. None of the traps seems to work at all. I shipped one off to someone in Georgia and have the other in my refugium. When i get the last one i'll probably post them to anyone wanting to pay shipping.
 
Mantis Adopted!

Mantis Adopted!

Thanks to everyone who offered advice on how to safely catch my Mantis. In the end, he ended up ridding himself from my tank on his own!!!

The "Little Booger" was adopted by Snakemanvet today and will provide a nice home for him. Thanks again to the RC family for your words of encouragement and advice. (Hopefully, I will not be starting a new thread on the red mantis! I think he may have been taken out by Booger!.....at least that's my dream.)

Cass :)
 
LIKE TO SAY THANKS AGAIN FOR BOOGER, DECIDED TO KEEP THAT NAME BECAUSE WHAT I HAVE READ, YOU HAD A HARD TIME GETTING HIM OUT. UNDER MY PC LIGHTING HE HAS SOME RED AND BLUE ON HIM, WITH A TINT OF GREEN ALL OVER.
 
He is busy digging sand out from around the liverock. he is so cool to watch how he is checking out his new surroundings.will post pic's soon.
 
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