How to catch a Mantis in your reef

I can confirm that shaking a mantis out of his rock can be extremly hard, you need some luck.

I have a mantis in my tank and i put each rock one by one on a Powerplate (these things you have in the gym). I left each rock shaking for about 2 minutes and it was litteraly shaking everything out of it, but no mantis. There is no way you can shake this hard and intense with your bare hands, so if this doesn't work... i think you must be very Lucky to get it out by shaking.

I did get one mantis out by dipping the rock in RO, but it did also kill the mantis...
 
the Mantis Shrimp is like a Sith Warrior! I like the pictures and your trap idea. I had a Mantis Shrimp loose in my tank and I just reached in and scooped him out with a net.
 
just wanted to say that the info in this thread was really useful in helping you catch a mantis!

I figured the popping I was hearing was from a pistol shrimp and I got lucky and I didn't have to worry about catching a mantis! I was wrong! I saw one this morning after 5 weeks of having my live rock. I tried the bottle technique but I was too impatient with that after a few hours. my husband and I found the rock he was staring at us from, scooped it out of the tank and shook it. fail. then we prodded the holes gently. fail. finally shook the rock like mad and it fell into a waiting bucket w tank water.

now to figure out what to do with it...
 
I keep hearing the clicking tale tale sound of a mantis. I've ordered a trap hopefully I will be able to move him to a smaller tank
 
I keep hearing the clicking tale tale sound of a mantis. I've ordered a trap hopefully I will be able to move him to a smaller tank

Usually...if you have not seen it...yet....it is a pistol shrimp...some pistols are only 1/4 of an inch long...but make the same pop as a mantis....and you will never see the pistol....a mantis you will see....

Richard TBS
www.tbsaltwater.com :spin3::spin3::spin3:
 
do crabs make the click noise too?

today i saw some sand floating out an rock, like if something chewed some sand or rock and spit it out

tonight i set up a surveillance ip cam to see if i get something recorded
 
Had a mantis for two years that I couldn't trap no matter what I tried. He was a really wily critter. So I borrowed a snow flake eel and within a day the mantis was eaten. The eel was a lot easier to trap and return to the shop.
 
wow... interesting reads here. Found one in a bucket we used to transport some LR from our LFS so we tossed him in our sump. Have not seen him since... about 2 months ago.
 
Mantis shrimp are no joke we had a couple crushing mantis that would drive us nuts with popping all the time finally had to take all of the rock out and dip them one by one into a bucket of fresh water and boom he came shooting out :) he must have been a tiny baby when he came into the system but he was the size of my pinky by the time he got done eating everything hahaha

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I got a mantis shrimp as a hitchhiker back in 2015. It took a while to properly identify him, but eventually i saw him searching for food during dusk feeding... A small, lime green mantis, not more than 2-3 inches long. Always curious and on its toes while feeding.

He lived a long time peacefully in the community with a boxing shrimp, cleaner shrimp and a peppermint shrimp till one day he decided he wanted the peppermint shrimp and just went for it... it was obvious that the other shrimps were alive only because the mantis just hadn't decided to eat them yet. I managed to catch him in a bottle trap and move him to a separate 30L aquarum where he seemed to do well.

When the main display got upgraded in may 2016 (and i grew tired of taking care of two aquariums) he moved in to the sump of the main aquarium, living off the food that was passed down from above. He didn't make much of a fuzz and we started to presume he was dead. We sold off a lot of the leftover rock from a rescape and still didn't find the shrimp. The unsold rock was then put in a barrel with circulation, but no heat or light and put away for a few months. When the last piece of rock had been sold, without spotting the shrimp, i decided to empty the barrel. While i poured all of the remaining water out i spotted the shrimp, well alive and kickin'. He had been living in cold water for the greater part of two months, with no lightning or feeding. Amazed by the hardiness he was, again, moved into the sump and later on i managed to find a suitable home for him... Extrordinary creatures!
 
I got a mantis shrimp as a hitchhiker back in 2015. It took a while to properly identify him, but eventually i saw him searching for food during dusk feeding... A small, lime green mantis, not more than 2-3 inches long. Always curious and on its toes while feeding.

He lived a long time peacefully in the community with a boxing shrimp, cleaner shrimp and a peppermint shrimp till one day he decided he wanted the peppermint shrimp and just went for it... it was obvious that the other shrimps were alive only because the mantis just hadn't decided to eat them yet. I managed to catch him in a bottle trap and move him to a separate 30L aquarum where he seemed to do well.

When the main display got upgraded in may 2016 (and i grew tired of taking care of two aquariums) he moved in to the sump of the main aquarium, living off the food that was passed down from above. He didn't make much of a fuzz and we started to presume he was dead. We sold off a lot of the leftover rock from a rescape and still didn't find the shrimp. The unsold rock was then put in a barrel with circulation, but no heat or light and put away for a few months. When the last piece of rock had been sold, without spotting the shrimp, i decided to empty the barrel. While i poured all of the remaining water out i spotted the shrimp, well alive and kickin'. He had been living in cold water for the greater part of two months, with no lightning or feeding. Amazed by the hardiness he was, again, moved into the sump and later on i managed to find a suitable home for him... Extrordinary creatures!

wow that is awesome! Wish all mantis shrimp were that hardy, but that is really impressive.
 
"Mantis shrimp also do not eat corals, nor will they damage them. The only exception is if the coral is not anchored down to a rock. The mantis will usually move the coral to block its burrow entrance, only it will be the wrong side up. So your corals are safe."

Forgive my saltwater inexperience, but I take it from this quote that corals are relatively safe with Mantis Shrimp, provided they are secured? I'm asking because I would like to keep a Peacock Shrimp, but wasn't sure if keeping corals with them was viable. Of course, I'd love to keep a lot of things eventually, but something about the Peacock makes me want to start there. I'm new to the forum, so I'm not sure if there's much info on keeping corals with a mantis, other then I've seen lots of threads like this one on how to get them out of the aquarium rather than keep them in one.
 
I don’t see why not! I think they just get a bad rep for the wrong reasons, they’re such fascinating creatures!
 
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