how can i find and catch a mantis

Re: bottle trap for mantis

Re: bottle trap for mantis

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9978065#post9978065 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by fishy6389
When placing a bottle trap in the tank to catch mantis shrimp, where should it be placed and how? On it's side? With the rim against a rock so the mantis can crawl up to it and fall it, or just out in the middle of nowhere and the mantis will swim into it? I thought they moved along things, so would have thought it's have to be against it?

Also what bait to use? Do the frozen fish food blocks work, or does it need something like cut up frozen human consumption shrimp? Or is there something better?
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Best to use fresh raw shrimp...also drill about 10 little 1/8 inch holes in the bottom of the bottle....better circulation/smell....but the best way to get him is just find the rock he lives in....remove...get shrimp!

Richard TBS
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9906037#post9906037 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by dbrooks1440
It's not a friggin' mantis...even if it was, just feed it silversides and he will be fine. I have a smithii in a full sized reef tank, and all he does is pick off the clean up crew.

$20/month is not too much to ask.

just feed him...it'll be fine.
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This is an awful statement!
i have a 20gallon reef w/ a mantis and i has killed 4 fish!
"just feed it"..are you that ignorant? I cant have any large fish in my tank..SO THE MANITS EATS THEM ALL ..CAUSE IT IS A SMALL TANK AND I CAN ONLY HAVE SMALL FISH!
Keep these stupid comments to yourself! my mantis has caused A NIGHMARE IN MY TANK!
 
I think the way he said it was very rude, but have you fed it? It is not an evil little monster bent on destroying your tank, it is just trying to survive.....Try feeding it, seriously. There is even a chance that the fish died by themselves and the mantis came to clean up the mess......That is, if you have even seen the mantis shrimp?
 
So if its not a mantis then what the heck is making all the clicking noises when the lights are out..it drives me nuts hearing that noise..I lost another fish already and can't find the body anywhere...could be the rose anemone but its hard to rule out whoever is clicking in my tank..
 
OK...I'll be nice this time.
In my experience, I have never had a mantis that "clicks" at night. I'm not saying that it doesn't happen, I've just never had one that did.

I have, however, had a pistol shrimp that clicked all night long for the majority of its life.

I think you have a pistol shrimp.
 
+1 for dbrooks suggestion. most mantids are diurnal. although it isnt unheard of them clicking at night. my G. smithii does it sometimes.

UCD, each mantis is different as far as personality goes. most smasher mantids leave fish alone for a few different reasons. yours may have been a nightmare, but most mantids are pretty good with fish (barring the spearing and some larger smasher species).
often i hear these "nightmare" stories and i dont believe them all. one girl at my lfs told me she caught a 2 inch mantis that took out her 5 inch trigger. BS, thats not even close to possible. not sayin i dont believe you, just sayin that there is a whole lot of other possible explanations.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9992728#post9992728 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by justinl
+1 for dbrooks suggestion. most mantids are diurnal. although it isnt unheard of them clicking at night. my G. smithii does it sometimes.

UCD, each mantis is different as far as personality goes. most smasher mantids leave fish alone for a few different reasons. yours may have been a nightmare, but most mantids are pretty good with fish (barring the spearing and some larger smasher species).
often i hear these "nightmare" stories and i dont believe them all. one girl at my lfs told me she caught a 2 inch mantis that took out her 5 inch trigger. BS, thats not even close to possible. not sayin i dont believe you, just sayin that there is a whole lot of other possible explanations.
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Since mantis have the fastest strike speed of any other creature then I don't think it would be too hard to believe that a fast blow will take out a fish..

I just heard the clicking a minute ago so I guess its just not at night..im going crazy of here
 
It wouldn't be enough. No 2" mantis is that powerful to kill a fish like that in 1 hit. And mantises are also very careful about what they attack. A mantis rarely kills something it doesn't think it can take on. The only small mantis killing a big fish story I've ever heard of was a fish that kept bugging a small mantis and the mantis kept hitting it on the jaw. The fish either died of a broken jaw or an infection......
 
yup +1 for what peabrain wrote. fyi, the fastest strike speed has been recorded as the trap jaw ant. but the insect is land based and dumb compared to our wonderful mantids! :D

you have to consider the size of the animal. a 6 inch peacock mantis is obviously big enough to take down a LOT of fish because it's raptorial appendages are better designed for thick shells. In short they hit hard.

now compare it to a small species like G. smithii. their raps are more streamlined and designed to handle nothing more than an astrea. these 3 inch and under guys pose MUCH less threat to fish... they cant afford to attack whatever they want.

mike, maybe the mantis is just messing with you... playing mind games and freakin you out...
 
I doubt you have a mantis (or at least one capable of taking out a chromis). My logic is simple -- the stomatopod species that eat fish, especially fast fish that live in the water column (that would be spearers, or large smashers) would either not click, or would be bloody obvious. The most common small spearer, P. ciliata, is "outgoing" and you would have seen it by now (plus it doesn't "click"). Large smashers capable of taking a chromis (e.g. "peacock" O. scyllarus) are "kings of the reef" and would be out and about. No chance of missing them.

I think that your initial guess, the anemone, is much more likely, and the clicking is probably either a pistol shrimp or a small (and relatively harmless) mantis species. I used to have a bubble-tip, and lots of fish mysteriously vanished.

Keep an eye out, you'll find the source of the clicking eventually.
 
I have a pistol shrimp and I RARELY see him. He has dens built completely across my 30g and will only peek out to grab food. He clicks away most nights.
 
My pistol shrimp is "shacked up" with a gold watchman goby, so is a little more "outgoing". Non-symbiotic species of pistols are much more likely to be reclusive. Look closely and you may see "peeking" but very unlikely will you see the animal completely exposed. Also -- mine has long antennae that are clearly visible and quite distinct from those of a mantis.
 
i hear clicking noises every once in a while in my 180 gal tank. I have lost two small anthias fish and both cleaner shrimp as well. I have also lost a goby...I cant rule out a pistol shrimp either...i made a trap using a water bottle of zeffer hills, just like the coke bottle trap except that the water bottle has ridges making it easier to secure the inverted top. well I'll post whatever i catch. I know that some of you may not want to see the mantis die if it is what is in my tank...., but considering what it cost me in terms of fish and invert loss, I think he needs to be squashed.
 
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Well, thats your choice. If you want to squish it, good for you. Just make sure that when your done the meat goes back in your tank. No since in letting an entire lifetime's worth of animal go to waste. If somethign has to die, it should at least be used to feed something else.

Dan
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10169548#post10169548 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Pea-brain
Well, thats your choice. If you want to squish it, good for you. Just make sure that when your done the meat goes back in your tank. No since in letting an entire lifetime's worth of animal go to waste. If somethign has to die, it should at least be used to feed something else.

Dan
Click to expand...

I GUESS YOURE RIGHT...NO SENCE IN WASTING A GOOD MEAL FOR MY NASARIUS SNAILS AND OTHER BOTTO DWELLERS IN MY TANK:cool:
 
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