how to flush out mantis from rock

[ejmeier]

I have narrowed down the rock that my mantis (or possibly pistol) is on to one rock. I heard clicks at night from a rock that I suspected of harboring a shrimp of some sort, so I moved the rock to another tank in another room. The clicks stopped in the previous tank, and started in the new one. So I KNOW he is in that rock!

Well, in my excitement and enthusiasm to come face to face with a mantis shrimp, I took the rock out (covered with mushrooms) and dunked in hot FW. I used tap water at about 90 - 100 degrees. I firsted dunked the rock in for 5 -10 seconds, expecting to see the shrimp running out like he was in a building that was on fire, but nothing happened.

So I then proceeded to dunk the rock for like 30 seconds - still no shrimp. I put the rock back into the tank. The mushrooms were devastated - about 1/3rd died, and all of the rest suffered some tissue loss. Most have since recovered decently, but to tell you the truth, I don't care about the mushrooms - I want my shrimp!

Why is it so SO hard to catch these guys? Admittedly, this rock is not a ceritfied liverock from the ocean, but some wierd rock that I found, not sure of its origins. It is very heavy, but filled with all sorts of holes and crevices - it looks kinda like an asteroid, only covered with coralline algae. Could the shrimp just be stuck too far into the rock to get out, or did I not use an inadequate dipping method?

 

[quiksilver]

you may have killed it with that dip haha

 

[ejmeier]

Yeah, at first I thought I did too. The clicks stopped for a day or two. But they came back...

 

[Puterguru]

From what I have read make up a small batch of saltwater in a bucket at a higher salinity like 1.030. Dump the rock in there. He should come right out.

 

[crgeltn]

Before you do anything make sure you actually see it in or on the rock. These guys are very fast and very hard to spot. Once you know for sure which rock it is in take it out, get some cold FW, and squirt some in each of the holes in the rock instead of dipping it. It should come out and you will not do as much harm to the rock and any shrooms on it. Remember this guy has probably survived alot between shipping, being out of the water, curing the rock and the dip you have already done. They are tough little buggers to say the least. Good luck!

 

[englishreefer]

i agree try crgeltens method, worked for me a treat, i now have him living in his own little tank fasinating creature. However if the wanted posters youve placed around your tank read dead or alive, try using a pair of scissors with abit of food between the blades. when he comes for his lunch BAMB!!!!!! chop in half, i cant say ive tried this method, alittle too brutal for my liking but it will not harm your rock in any way what so ever,

 

[richard55]

i used a turkey baster with fresh water she popped right out. I think she is pretty cool and have setup a ten gallon tank for it.

Richard

 

[ejmeier]

I can't wait to see what this guy looks like!

I'm going out to pick up a turkey baster (old one broke) and hopefully this mantis will have a lovely new home in a 5 1/2 gallon tank.

 

[lllosingit]

If the rock isn't to large why not use it to start your nano.
You may kill it just trying to get it out.

 

[ejmeier]

grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!

I just tried using a turkey baster with cold water, nothing....

I suspended the rock over a basin, and covered it with eggcrate and netting to catch the falling shrimp from landing in the ice cold water. Nothing ever came out! I saw some pretty ugly bristle worms, some amphipods, but no shrimp!

Following this I tried the hyper-salinity dip. I used existing SW and added a couple cups of salt, giving it a SG of over 1.030. I dunked it for maybe 30 sec. Nothing.

I still hear clicks all the time, and unless the shrimp moved to a different rock, he's STILL in there!

Can't someone help me catch/kill this shrimp without going insane???

 

[lilswanwillow]

try doing the dips for longer...
once upon a time, when i caught George for fun, to show him in a classroom, it took a 3 minute FW dip to get him out, but he was FINE after that. tuff lil bugs!!!
but, at the time, i wan't too worried cause I knew what hes been through, and was ready for when he came out. and he did come SHOOTING outta there!!!
it was just FW, the same temp and stuff as the tank, just no salt...

 

[ejmeier]

One good thing I noticed this time - no die off from the corals. Well, I think a few bristle worms died, and a lot of them are in shock, but my mushrooms are all fine, even my little flat anemone is doing okay.

Now that I look closer at the rock itself, I don't think very many mushrooms actually died from the original dip I did a few weeks ago. They certainly lost a lot of "tissue" or whatever is inside them - and they fouled the tank, but they mostly all lived - they're just smaller.

I am leary of doing a FW dip for that amount of time (3 min). I'm not sure what harmed my mushrooms the first time (using hot FW), the temperature change or the salinity fluctuation. I might try dipping the rock again in a few days once everything has got a chance to recover.

Do you guys think that it would be safer for the corals to do a high-salinity dip or a FW dip? (Keep in mind that this is the LAST dip that I want to do, so I have to get the shrimp out on this shot.)

 

[natybug]

Try the turkey baster method with club soda... heard of good luck with that one.

 

[lilswanwillow]

could you remove the shrooms from the rock?
that way they won't haveta go through the different dips with the rock, know what i mean....

 

[ejmeier]

I can't really take the mushrooms off, there are too many of them, it wouldn't be worth my time. The shrooms are expendable at this point, I'm starting an SPS tank, so the mushrooms will have little place in the new tank. But I DO want to find this mantis, and cause the least amonut of die-off in the process.

Also, the rock appears to have recovered fairly well now. I moved the rock to a new nano I am setting up and cycling. Just for sanity's sake I made sure that this mystery rock is the ONLY thing in the tank. I am just now hearing the clicks again today, and the only thing in the tank is the rock...

I think I'll dunk it again soon, maybe the military-style dunk that lilswanwillow suggested. Heck I may first try shooting Diet Coke into the rock with a Turkey Baster! (then maybe a FW dip to wash it out.) Anything to find this shrimp!

 

[kyanskey]

This sounds extreme, but it works--and kills off a lot less than the boiling water method......
since you already have the rock out, dip it in club soda! I found out I had not one but two mantis shrimp in my rock when I did that--took less than a minute for those suckers to come screaming out of their holes, then immediately rinse the rock off in saltwater and put it back in your tank, have a net ready to fish out anything else that came out of the rock, too. The only casualties when I did mine were the grammarius shrimp, it also evacuated all the bristleworms and a couple of hermit crabs. no damage to any of the corals and polyps on the rocks.
good luck!

 

[ejmeier]

kyanskey, thanks for the tip. I might give this a try, though the rock is so huge that I'll have to use like 4 gallons of club soda - hope its not too expensive.

 

[ejmeier]

Okay, I think my saga has finally come to an end - but not without a mighty final battle!!! (Slightly humorous as well.)

Here's the deal, I bought some club soda - the stuff was like $1 per liter, so I only bought 4 liters, giving me roughly one gallon of the stuff. Then, I mixed this gallon of club soda with 2 gallons of freshwater. The temp in the dip matched that of the tank. I then proceeded to dunk my huge, mushroom filled rock in the club soda FW mix for 6 minutes! Yes, six minutes, maybe a bit more. Nothing.

So I said, alright, just about everything on this rock is going to die anyway, let's get to the bottom of this! (I was pretty angry right about now.) So I proceed to take a hammer and a screwdriver (two actually, I broke one) and just start pounding away at this rock. I chiseled it down to maybe 1/4 its original size, and found nothing. This was not a regular live-rock from the ocean, but some mystery rock I found some where, not sure what it was made of, but in the center it was very dense.

After this I simply couldn't get at it and keep my room clean from flying debris, so I took it out side, and really just whacked the life out of it. Finally, on the VERY LAST PIECE that I hit, I found this TINY teensey weensey little "bug" drop out. I was outdoors, and at first I had thought that this was just some beetle type thing that just happened to be in the way. Just to be safe I scooped him up with the shrimp net that I had so thoughtfully brought along, and placed him in a pitcher of tankwater.

I was a shrimp! Looking at it, I think that it is actually a pistol shrimp. It is a tiny little maybe 1/2" or 3/4" shrimp. Dunked in club soda for 6 minutes, then flung out onto the concrete, sitting there helplessly amid the flying rubble, while huge boulders rolled by him, he was transferred to the container of water, and he's doing just fine! :thumbsup:

He has a really big claw on his right arm, and a little one on his left. The arms/claws are not tucked under his body, but are streched out. Looks like a Pistol shrimp to me. Ahhh, I can sleep soundly tonight knowing that I got to the bottom of this, curiousity just got the best of me!