how to catch
- Thread starter salty dog
- Start date
gozermantis
Stomatoholic
they usually dont eat fish.. sure he is the one doing it?
gozermantis
Stomatoholic
hmmm... gotta love lfs jumping to conclusions. can you see that the fish are eaten or are they just dying?
gozermantis
Stomatoholic
+1 on that justinl. yeah man there are other things it can be and i dont know anything about your setup
VacavilleFC3S
Active member
theres a good chance it's a mantis, spearing style mantis are known for it
smashing type usually won't
smashing type usually won't
spearer mantids are also not known for hitchhiking into the hobby. there certainly are cavity dwelling spearers but (if I recall correctly) they occur at depths where rock is not collected. the other spearers live under rocks or in sand where they will not be collected unless they are targeted specifically. Either way, I have yet to hear of a hitch hiker spearer; only small smashers so far as I've heard of.
mykdf
New member
Most of the stuff that's been killed in my tank was killed by the hitchhiker crabs. You could tell it was them because they would pile up the shells in front of their burrows.
How "good" was your live rock when you got it? Mine was "very good" but it had many crabs, xenia, hydroids, macro algae and one mantis. In other words, are you sure there's nothing else in the tank that could be the culprit?
Try the bottle trap and see what you come up with.
How "good" was your live rock when you got it? Mine was "very good" but it had many crabs, xenia, hydroids, macro algae and one mantis. In other words, are you sure there's nothing else in the tank that could be the culprit?
Try the bottle trap and see what you come up with.
Thurge
New member
Don't panic. We'll get this figured out. LFS and many others in the industry think Mantis shrimp are the Son of the Devil and as a result are responsible for all fish kills, oil spills, and Hurricanes. Seriously, Andrew and Camille were caused by mantis shrimp. It was all over the news. 
Where did your rock come from? Fiji, Tonga, TampaBaySaltwater.com, Marshall Islands etc. This can help narrow the species down IF its a mantis.
You don't hear anything that sounds like a rock is splitting in half or the side of your tank just broke? Thats good.
What is left in the tank that you know of?
Have you tried looking at your tank late at night? Every once in a while someone will spy the offending culpret at night. Mantis have some of the best eyes but some of the other possible culprets don't.
How long has your tank been set up?
Where did your rock come from? Fiji, Tonga, TampaBaySaltwater.com, Marshall Islands etc. This can help narrow the species down IF its a mantis.
You don't hear anything that sounds like a rock is splitting in half or the side of your tank just broke? Thats good.
What is left in the tank that you know of?
Have you tried looking at your tank late at night? Every once in a while someone will spy the offending culpret at night. Mantis have some of the best eyes but some of the other possible culprets don't.
How long has your tank been set up?
it is fiji rock and they are scarlet red crabs the size of a dime and i go to work at 430am so i look in the tank everynight and have not seen anything the crabs i got with the gobi the damsels died with just them in the tank. well one the tail was missing and one just disappeared
EvilMel
is a serious goby fanatic
My LFS got in a shipment of live rock that was loaded with stomatopods.
We told everyone how to get them out of the rock without hurting them (dunk the rock in RO water or colder salt water) and to bring them back to us. Several people did that (or kept the little guys in their sumps) and we set them up in small tanks in the store. We ended up having so many that we gave them away to people who wanted them. I should have taken pictures of them.
If it happens again, I definitely will.
But traditionally, in live rock you get those rock crabs more often than mantis shrimp. They can be wicked difficult to find too. I had some live rock for about 7 years before one day seeing a hairy leg poking out of the back of my rocks. When I moved the third time I ended up finding him...HUGE rock crab. I gave him to one of my friends in the reef club who kept him in his sump for a long time.
We told everyone how to get them out of the rock without hurting them (dunk the rock in RO water or colder salt water) and to bring them back to us. Several people did that (or kept the little guys in their sumps) and we set them up in small tanks in the store. We ended up having so many that we gave them away to people who wanted them. I should have taken pictures of them.
If it happens again, I definitely will.
But traditionally, in live rock you get those rock crabs more often than mantis shrimp. They can be wicked difficult to find too. I had some live rock for about 7 years before one day seeing a hairy leg poking out of the back of my rocks. When I moved the third time I ended up finding him...HUGE rock crab. I gave him to one of my friends in the reef club who kept him in his sump for a long time.
