I think I found him?

[timisseasick]

I'm sorry to say I had to tear down my reef to narrow it down to 4 large rocks in tank. I can hear him click but cant see him or pinpoint what rock. Its been about two weeks and i want to put my reef back together. My question is can I? soak the rocks to flush him out and if so with what. Also the rocks are covered w/ zoos will that hurt them. Help a desperate man..thanks

 

[DanInSD]

Need more info... what type of mantis? Are you even sure it's a mantis and not a pistol shrimp? Did a bottle trap not work?

You can dip the rocks -- I hear in particular that carbonated water will make mantis shrimps scurry out in hurry -- but that might hurt the zoos. Best to do a test dip on a small piece.

Dan

 

[justinl]

sorry double post.

 

[justinl]

have you ever gotten a visual to be sure it really is a mantis? Like dan said, more often than not it usually is a pistol.

As for the dip, I wouldn't. A lot of success is had by repeatedly dipping the rock in a bucket of saltwater (same general parameters as display tank). I would keep using the bottle trap first though

 

[timisseasick]

Im not 100% sure but fish are missing, snails and crabs are dead. What is the best thing to bait bottle trap with?

 

[Pea-brain]

frankly, unless you have a monster I would leave it in assuming its a mantis. The reason they take down fish is because they are starved. If you found out where it is you could manually feed frozens and if well fed it would probly leave your snails and crabs alone. And very unlikely to touch fish. But as for what works in traps, shrimp, squid, krill. Most frozen meaty foods will work. And if they dont try a different food. some are picky.

 

[DanInSD]

You may be barking up the wrong tree... or at least should be directing at least some of your attention at different trees.

A few salient points:

1) Very few mantis species will eat fish *and* snails/crabs (generally, spearers only the former, smashers only the latter). Those that do are large and obvious (like O. scyllarus); and even then, "crossover" attacks are rare (my O.s. has been living with two damsels for months w/o incident).

2) When you say "snails and crabs are dead", did they just disappear, or are there pieces of shells, etc? A mantis will leave shells with holes in them, and will pile them around their burrow.

3) Pistol shrimp will likely not harm fish, unless they are small fish that the shrimp doesn't like, and are eager to co-habitate against the will of the shrimp. Seen it with a Yasha-hasi goby. Apparently this is Rare.

What fish have disappeared? How big? What other fish are in the tank (hawkfish, for instance, will eat snails, hermits, shrimp, and small crabs)? Did you find any fish remains (and if so, what damage was done)? Do you own a cat? (seriously...)

Dan