Help with mantis!

Weeks without food? Great.....

Here's where I'm at now. I did another dip in carbonated saltwater with sg 1.035. A few worms exited, but that's it after 10 minutes!

So I decided to try Jay's suggestion. The rock is in my normal saltwater in a cooler with an airstone and the lid slightly ajar. I'll throw a trap in there in a few days when he might be a little hungry and hope for the best. (Plus that rock is now isolated, because I'm sure I'll get some die-off from my 24 hour no water attempt.)

I'm feeding the tank mysis and watching for him to make a surprise appearance from another rock just in case!!!

Any further ideas welcomed... Thank so much for all the help, I was going nuts and now at least I have a plan!

PS I no longer EVER reach into my tank bare-handed. Nice long rubber gloves for me! HAHAHA.
 
Last edited:
headless said:
Yeah, but rubbing up against some bristle worms can be quite painful too...I use long rubber gloves, no need pain/dysfunction...I need my hands for work!
Click to expand...

This is going to sound totally immature, but aside from potential coral stings (I have two Elegance) and getting whacked by a mantis, there's a mild ick-factor for me too... who knows what the heck is in there. This way I can concentrate on what I'm doing and not on what might bite me, whack me, sting me, or otherwise surprise me--like the time my shrimp decided to land on my arm and tickle me when I was scrubbing the glass and didn't know he was there!

That said, I am relieved to hear that if the mantis ever did get me, I might not actually die. :beer:

No sign of him this morning.... will attempt the trap maybe mid-week.
 
I know you mentioned you had tried carbonated water - one question, do you know what hole he lives in? If so, have you tried filling a turkey baster and actually blasting/injecting it into the holes in the live rock? I've used this method with much success to get out a few pistol shrimp, bad crabs, and two mantis shrmip.

As soon as you get the right hole they'll come flying out of there like it's no one's business! The crabs seem a little more resiliant to this method but after three full basters full of refrigerated soda water all my problems were gone, even some I never knew I had.

Oh and this method keeps all the little guys alive - once I was taking them back to the LFS for some store credit and got in a head-on collision with a drunk driver, but that's another story; the second time I got $10 store credit!
 
Mook Man said:
I know you mentioned you had tried carbonated water - one question, do you know what hole he lives in? If so, have you tried filling a turkey baster and actually blasting/injecting it into the holes in the live rock? I've used this method with much success to get out a few pistol shrimp, bad crabs, and two mantis shrmip.

As soon as you get the right hole they'll come flying out of there like it's no one's business! The crabs seem a little more resiliant to this method but after three full basters full of refrigerated soda water all my problems were gone, even some I never knew I had.

Oh and this method keeps all the little guys alive - once I was taking them back to the LFS for some store credit and got in a head-on collision with a drunk driver, but that's another story; the second time I got $10 store credit!
Click to expand...

That's exactly what I did the first time- blasted right in his hole! That's how I caught the 2 gorilla crabs and a porcelain crab. No mantis! It wasn't very cold though, maybe that would help. I think he's holed up deep in the recesses of that rock and it impenetrable!

Still have rock in a bucket with airstone. No mantis yet.
 
Head on with drunk driver... sheesh, I've always been super nervous something terrible like that would happen while I'm transporting fish/coral... hope your alright now, the real question is what did you still make it to the fish store after all that... and to nanofam, good luck sometimes they are just SUPER stubborn but you'll get him in due time
 
Update, need more help...

Update, need more help...

I had my own tangle with a drunk driver when I was younger. Idiots!!!!!!! Glad you were all OK.

Now the update... Rock has been in a bucket with an airstone for a week. I'm getting an ammonia spike from beating it up, leaving it out, etc (0.5 ppm). Plus it's a bit cold in there, for some reason hanging around 67 degrees even though room temp in here is more like 72-73. I tried the mantis trap baited with some shrimp over night, and no luck.

I can't put rock back in DT until it's done cycling, so I've got time to wait here, but I'm wondering if mantis is more likely dead at this point? Are they really hardy enough to survive this low temp plus the ammonia in there? If so, I'm willing to crack the rock if I haven't caught him by the time rock is ready to go back into DT.

So my plan is to do a water change today and keep trying the trap overnights until either rock is cycled or I catch him, whichever comes first. Then what I don't know!!!
 
So the rock is done with its mini-cycle far as I can tell. Ammonia/nitrite/nitrate all back to 0. Still no sign of mantis!

Tomorrow I'm going to try breaking that rock into a few pieces and see if I can find him. I give up! Any other suggestions?
 
Sounds like you've tried nearly everything and so far no results. If you do crack the LR into smaller pieces, hope the little guy is alive and unharmed. Would love to see a pic and have Mantis people ID it.
 
Thanks... fingers crossed that he's OK in there. I'll feel awful if he's not! So frustrating!!!!! His paradise awaits...

I'm pretty sure it's an N. wannerae, but I'm hoping we'll get a better look soon, will definitely post a pic if I can get him!
 
Utter defeat

Utter defeat

I tried to break open the rock, and no luck. It's just too big and hard.

So in the end I jammed the entire thing into the 2.5. I removed all the cute rubble, etc I had in there waiting for mantis. It looks awful and takes up just about the entire tank, but at least it's in a tank rather than a bucket.

I guess I'll try feeding mysis every few days and see if my little green friend reappears. Not sure what else to do! Ugh!!!
 
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