I'm stupid and now the mantis is back in the tank..Help with trap.

[banzai75x]

I had recently caught a mantis by pure accident. I found it floating in the preskimmer box of my remora pro. Well I took him out and had him in a cup waiting for a fellow reefer. Anyways, I went to change the water in the cup and the little guy flew out and he is back in the tank. Yes, I am stupid.


He's a small guy. Only about 1 inch long. But I want to get him out now before he causes more havoc. I just added snails too. Will he kill them?

I want to try a trap first but I'm not sure if it will work since he probably can scoot outside the water bottle opening. What bait should/could I use? I might try some bait in a jar with the maget cleaner trick too. But I need to know what type of bait to use. If this doesn't work I'm going to do a high salinity dip. I'd rather not though because I heard this can kill other organisms. My tank is fairly new so I don't have fish or corals yet.

 

[maryrosi]

Josh, I did a high salinity dip and didn't lose anything on my LR. The Mantis didn't come out, so I used FW and squirted it in the holes on the LR and it came right out. Good luck!

 

[banzai75x]

I wish I would have read your post earlier. I tried the high salinity dip with all of my rock. Nothing came out. I put everything back in the tank just now and I have no idea which rock this guy is on. Maybe I'll do a FW dip again next weekend but I like the way it is aquascaped. The guy is only 1" long right now. I might try a trap but the darn nassarius snails go for the trap more than the mantis.

 

[Lostmind]

Perhaps the nass snails will lure the mantis in

 

[maryrosi]

The salinity dip that I did was at 1.030 and the stinker never came out. I didn't dip my LR in the FW, but just used the baster to squirt it in the holes as I held it over the bucket filled with some of my tankwater. When it did shoot out of the LR from the FW flow, he fell into the bucket. Good luck!

 

[banzai75x]

I must be the luckiest guy. I tried the trap last nite. I came up with one nassarius snail this morning. Anyways as I was leaving for work, I checked the overflow box for my remora. I saw this small thing moving around. Took the flashlight out and it was MR MANTIS! I carefully removed him again. This is TWICE that he found his way into the overflow. Anyways, he is never coming near the tank again.

 

[Cearbhaill]

Sometimes things work out!!!