How to murder a mantis,,Spock is dead

[Diesel Man]

Well I have mixed feelings but spock is dead. I needed to ad fish so I move all the coarl and then pulled out the one huge rock and placed it in a 5gallon bucket of fresh water. Well after five minutes still no spock.. It did however get rid of the bristel stars and a couple of stone crabs. I hosed it off toobut no mantis. So I put the tank back together and as soon as the water cleared there was spock. Looking out of his hole.
So I got a bowl of ice and filled it with fresh water then I put it on the top of the light hood and used an iv tube to dran it into the hole where spock was hiding. Now I have a 10 gallon tank and nothing is dead from the ice. It comes out to slow to hurt the tank but fills the caves with ice cold water. Soon Spock foated out another hole deader than dirt. Hes was given a buryial in my canal and was last seen being eatin by a snapper.
The irony......I just heard a snap in my tank just now Spock jr lives......

 

[Angel*Fish]

It could be a pistol shrimp --- In our quest for the mantis , we caught four of them.

In my limited experience, I have found that pistols snap more often than mantis shrimp do . We were keeping a pistol only "tank" for a while (tried to find them a home)

The pistols snap regularly sort of - maybe to aggravate other pistols or they are catching a lot of pods or something. Where as I think the mantis only "snapped" when he was digging a cave -- you can see the "smoke" coming out -- or killing something.

 

[Fcamdog]

I thought I had a mantis free tank many months ago. Now I let them live their lives and keep the tank well stocked with small crabs so they don't eat anything I don't want them to. I estimate that in my 40g I have 3 small mantis, all around 1-2" in length. I see them after I feed the tank with live brine shrimp, scooting around eating.

 

[Diesel Man]

pistol shrimp

pistol shrimp

I did dunk the big rock in a bucit of water(fresh) I didnt get the mantis but a shrimp with a white strip down its back and large claws. I put it back in the tank it was just over an inch.
I still have a half inch long mantis I saw him yesterday. I will let him stay.

 

[Angel*Fish]

Are sure it isn't an amphipod? Mantis's always have those eyes that are very visible and above their heads, like kids pictures of crabs..

Fcamdog, don't know what else you've got in there, but the mantis's will eventually go after any non-mantis predator fish -- I even know someone who tried your plan who lost a beautiful firefish that way. Thank goodness it was the only fish in the tank at that time..

It may not be today or tomorrow and not necessarily soon either -- but it's going to happen:worried:

If there's someone out there that has been successful doing this, I would say that he had a very unusual mantis --maybe there's a more docile species or something.

But IMO it's like having a cat closed up in a large room with a mouse (no cage), sooner or later something bad is liable to happen.

 

[msjn771]

mantis shrimp

mantis shrimp

if you find spock jr. I would be happy to take him off your hands