How to catch a Mantis in your reef

So mantis will not eat or mess with corals except how its stated there, where they might steal your frags to use as building material or to block their tunnel entrances when they sleep at night.

HOWEVER.

Some species like peacocks do not tolerate high light very well. There is a theory (think its still just a theory) that it can cause shell rot or somehow affect the animals health in a negative way. There are species of mantis that live in high light coral areas you can go with if having a coral reef tank is what you want to do. Otherwise you would need to build around that idea.

Some people will get LED spotlight style lights and focus them down on say, just a single rock outcrop in the tank so they can mount some coral there, but the majority of the rest of the tank isn't really lit including where the mantis shrimp is going to live.
 
I think thats pretty species dependent when it comes to hunting sleeping fish, or perhaps more an opportunistic behavior. I kept fish with my ternatensis and not a single one died in the few years I had him.

Now my CUC crew, that was another matter lolol. I just kept my choices of snails and hermits restocked and highly varied in size and species to figure out which stuff he preferred over others so I knew what to buy more of to actually function as CUC and what to buy that was just a longer lived mid-day snack. haha.

My Ternatensis even when full grown never killed a Turbo snail. He popped one a few times but gave up really fast on it. He would dESTROY hermit crabs and any other crab I put in. Absolutely loved them. Smaller snails like trochus and astrea lasted longer but eventually would become a snack. I can't say he never killed a nassarius but I had quite a few and easily could have missed a few getting killed.
 
I imagine it could be species specific, but as far as I know there's no list of fish safe mantises. It also depends on the type of fish you have. I don't think you'd have to worry about a trigger fish, for example

I'd be concerned it was eating things like amphipods and worms which I'd find very objectionable
 
Well I have one for sure. First I thought Pistol Shrimp, because of the noise. Then one day he was sitting by the glass.
I have yet to get a good picture but it's a dark greyish color with yellow eye stalks & "feet".
The tank is only about 4 months old & it is small, the rock is from Tampa Bay.
 
this worked for me.
Mix non-flavored carbonated water to match the Sg and temp of the display. put the rock in it for 5 minutes. You can save the mantis if you have a small tank to put him in. The carbonated water won't kill him, just drive him out of the rock.
 
Unless there is multiples this one moves around under the rockwork so I would have to dismantle the tank.
My right arm is supposed to be in a sling right now.
 
 
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Good luck Vinny and John. I’ve been lucky. Every mantis I’ve ever gotten has been a small smasher. Those were in my younger days when I would feed them by hand in my DT😅
 
Thanks Griss.
I did manage to net the Mantis bet it escaped on the way up to the surface.
Having heard they are smart & learn form their experiences I figured that was it.
A short time later it was by the front glass again. It did not even move when the net went down & covered it.
I made sure there was not another escape.
The Mantis now resides in a tank in a High School Marine Sciences classroom.
 
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