This has been an off and on battle to remove a 1.5 in mantis from my 54 corner reef. He arrived about 6 months ago in Florida Rock. Last night I had him between my fingers trapped against the sand and up against a rock. He bit the hell out of my index finger and took off! The last 'almost had him' attempt was the previous week when I took out a piece of rock he was in. As I pulled the rock out of the water he actually jumped out of his hole hit my metal halide light and back into the tank! He looked like a ricocheting bullet.<p> He is so on to me now. When he sees me walk into the room he takes off to the back of the tank behind rocks. Am I ever going to catch him? Should I try a mantis trap? Do they work?
I had him...then I didn't!
- Thread starter DrBCP
- Start date
Gonodactylus
Premium Member
How much similar entertainment do you get from other inhabitants in your tank? People pay big bucks to match wits with deer, turkeys, fox, etc. You got yours for free. I say enjoy the chase. Life will be so dull when you finally win.
Roy
p.s. Mantis traps work occasionally, but they are by no means a sure thing.
Roy
p.s. Mantis traps work occasionally, but they are by no means a sure thing.
liverocks.com
New member
Now u see him , Now u don't ?
Now u see him , Now u don't ?
Sounds like u live a very interesting life with that tank of yours. Like Gonodactylus said: Savor the moment, the thrill of the hunt is the hunt. Once it's over, you wish it was still happening. ENJOY IT WHILE YOU CAN. Mantis from the caribbean are not a bad thing. Go to the thread: Mantis bad or good. some good stuff there.
"Ron of Triton" AKA. "liverocks.com"
(((( HAPPY HUNTING ))))
Now u see him , Now u don't ?
Sounds like u live a very interesting life with that tank of yours. Like Gonodactylus said: Savor the moment, the thrill of the hunt is the hunt. Once it's over, you wish it was still happening. ENJOY IT WHILE YOU CAN. Mantis from the caribbean are not a bad thing. Go to the thread: Mantis bad or good. some good stuff there.
"Ron of Triton" AKA. "liverocks.com"
(((( HAPPY HUNTING ))))
I would love to hear how you caught the little devil. I've managed to get two out of I tank so far (both by pure dumb luck) and still have one small guy still hiding. Right now he seems to have made a home in a rock with a bunch of sponges on it, and I've been told never to take sponges out of the water. The last one managed to shatter a 2 inch bivalue I had in the tank prior to me catching him.
Frank
Frank
schaf,<p>As I walked into the room one night he finally made a bad decision and hid in an accessible rock. I put the entire rock in a net and pulled it out (just so he wouldn't pull that 'jumping out of the rock' routine again. I dunked the rock in cold tap water and he shot right out within a few seconds. Unfortunately, he had to stand trial for the death of over 30 hermit crabs, 1 cleaner shrimp, and 2 fish. <p> I think if you are quick, meaning, you take the rock/sponge out and dunk it in tap water for a few seconds, then get it back in your tank within a few minutes, you should not harm anything. I have several sponges that made a trip from Florida out of water wrapped in wet paper towels for 18 hrs.
RyanN
Premium Member
Are you sure he was responsible for all of those deaths? I ask because I spent months trying to get my 1.5" mantis out of my reef tank. He's happily living in my 7 gallon nano now. At first I blamed him for all the hermits/snails I lost but even after he was out of the tank, I lost hermits and snails at the same rate. What happened was that the hermits were killing the snails and each other. The only things I'm certain he killed were the two small peppermint shrimp I added to the tank.
He's been in the nano for almost a year now (it was started as a mantis tank just for him but I got bored with how it looked). I added small hermits and snails the first week it was set up just to watch him beat the crap out of them...they're still all alive and well. I don't feed him directly too often but I'm assuming he's eating the flake food and live brine I feed the fish in the tank...it has to be that or the pods.
I'd hate to have to stand trial for all the hamburgers I eat
1 Black percula
1 Purple firefish
1 Tuxedo urchin
2 electric blue hermits
several scarlet hermits
several snails
and 1 now 2" mantis that leaves everything alone
Ryan
He's been in the nano for almost a year now (it was started as a mantis tank just for him but I got bored with how it looked). I added small hermits and snails the first week it was set up just to watch him beat the crap out of them...they're still all alive and well. I don't feed him directly too often but I'm assuming he's eating the flake food and live brine I feed the fish in the tank...it has to be that or the pods.
I'd hate to have to stand trial for all the hamburgers I eat
1 Black percula
1 Purple firefish
1 Tuxedo urchin
2 electric blue hermits
several scarlet hermits
several snails
and 1 now 2" mantis that leaves everything alone
Ryan
Gonodactylus
Premium Member
What a stomatopod will kill and/or eat depends on several factors. First, species vary considerably in their dietary preferences - and I'm not talking just about spearers vs smashers. Gonodactylus chiragra specialize on snails and hermits. Much of their diet in the field consists of relatively large gastropods and hermits. On the other side of the coin, Haptosquilla trispinosa that is a perfectly respectable smasher takes small prey out of the water column. N. wennerae which many of you are dealing with because of the presence in live rock from Florida is a generalist and will take small snails and hermits, but it also like shrimp, worms, bivalves, etc. Firsh generally escape their attention.
Also, as many of you have found out, stomatopods can be very picky eaters. This is particulary true of some gonodactylids. If they are being given a particular fook, they will often refuse everything else. When trying to switch food, they will sometimes go weeks before readily accepting something else.
Finally, many species will often specialize on what is easiest. We did a study several years ago on O. scyllarus providing them with simultaneous access to several food items - fish meat, shrimp meat, clam meat, live clams, live snails, live crabls, etc. They quickly started taking what gave them the most meat for the time and effort. Armored snails and hermits were ignored if shrimp or clam meat was available. When we took away the easy meals and tried to force them to open snails, it took days before they would accept them.
Roy
Also, as many of you have found out, stomatopods can be very picky eaters. This is particulary true of some gonodactylids. If they are being given a particular fook, they will often refuse everything else. When trying to switch food, they will sometimes go weeks before readily accepting something else.
Finally, many species will often specialize on what is easiest. We did a study several years ago on O. scyllarus providing them with simultaneous access to several food items - fish meat, shrimp meat, clam meat, live clams, live snails, live crabls, etc. They quickly started taking what gave them the most meat for the time and effort. Armored snails and hermits were ignored if shrimp or clam meat was available. When we took away the easy meals and tried to force them to open snails, it took days before they would accept them.
Roy
As for the mantis in the 32gallon reef he will take shrimp and what ever other criters he likes in the tank. It just hasn't been any of my clams or fish.
I never knew that there were smashers that would feed from the water column. Good piece of info.
[Gonodactylus]Also, as many of you have found out, stomatopods can be very picky eaters. This is particulary true of some gonodactylids. If they are being given a particular fook, they will often refuse everything else. When trying to switch food, they will sometimes go weeks before readily accepting something else. [Gonodactylus]
I am finding this out with my new mantis I put a crab(Declawed) and a snail in with him and he has beat the crab out of his burrow but has not eated either one. It is going on 2 weeks. He won't except shrimp either. G. mutatus
I guess its a waiting game
Alex
I never knew that there were smashers that would feed from the water column. Good piece of info.
[Gonodactylus]Also, as many of you have found out, stomatopods can be very picky eaters. This is particulary true of some gonodactylids. If they are being given a particular fook, they will often refuse everything else. When trying to switch food, they will sometimes go weeks before readily accepting something else. [Gonodactylus]
I am finding this out with my new mantis I put a crab(Declawed) and a snail in with him and he has beat the crab out of his burrow but has not eated either one. It is going on 2 weeks. He won't except shrimp either. G. mutatus
I guess its a waiting game
Alex
Thank you both for your input. In may case the young Mantis in my tank currently (my guess is he's less then 1" in length) seems to be focusing on worms (I've noticed all my tube worms are disappreared although I can't be sure he caused this), and the remaining barnacles in the tank (saw him eat one of these). He is picky. I tried tempting him out with shrimp meat with no success, even when I left it sitting there. My turbos seems fine and the fish are being ignored. I'm just going to let him be until I'm sure I have a problem.
Again, thank you for the advise. Most people just state that Mantis Shrimp are the devil and mush be killed. If we can find terms for a cease fire, I'm happy.
Frank
Again, thank you for the advise. Most people just state that Mantis Shrimp are the devil and mush be killed. If we can find terms for a cease fire, I'm happy.
Frank
Gonodactylus
Premium Member
Gonodactylids can indeed be very specialized in their feeding. One of the stranger feeding patterns I've come across was in Neogonodactylus festae, a 5 cm smasher living in rock cavities on the Pacific coast of Panama. This beast is particularly common in razor clam burrows in rock used to build the breakwater for the Pamana Canal. These rocks are also covered by barnacles. You can easily spot a stomatopod cavity because they graze on the barnacles for several inches around the cavity entrance. They smash in the tops of the barnacle and pick out the body. In June and July when barnacles recruit, almost the entire diet of the stomatopods consists of barnacles.
Roy
Roy
