Mantis #3

[scooters reef]

Well, Connie has notified me we have a mantis in the refugium. LOL, at least it's in a good spot!

I tried to talk her out of what she thinks she saw, figuring it was one of the larger gammarus in there or something, but she insists it was about 3 inches long, and nothing else in there that I know of would get anywhere near that large.

LOL, also, the two mantis we pulled out of her old 55 when we set it up were bothed discovered by her, and I didn't believe her EITHER time until I finally saw them peeking out at me too.

Now, I have to wonder how it got there. The rock I used in the fuge was small pieces of dry base rock. Even after the two were removed from the 55 she insisted there was another because the second one I pulled out looked different than the one she last saw. Nothing was seen since and the 55 sat for a year until rock was moved to the 200. If it was there all along and moved with the rock, LOL, now I'm worried if there are still more !!!

Oh, don't worry Jon, not only will I be wearing gloves when I thin out all the halimeda, I will inspect it well for any 3 inch long nasties before bagging it !!!

Looks like I'm camping out in the fish room awhile tonight to try to confirm whatever she saw.

 

[Lishoop6]

not to be evil :uzi: but could eggs have entered in on live rock from display.

 

[scooters reef]

IF it turns out she's right, yet again, I'd imagine it went through the overflow while still smaller. Actually, even if her size guess is right, it could have still made it in the overflow. Am guessing we just missed one if that's what it turns out to be. I just spent about 30 minutes staring in there and saw nothing even close yet. Biggest I saw was gammarus around 1/4 inch or so.

As for eggs, no clue. Never heard anything about that happening, but ya never know. Even then, it would most likely be from the TBS rock that resulted in the other two. That was a long time ago. The rock was put in her 55 about a year before we moved. The 55 then sat in a basement storeroom barely running just to keep the rock going for another year, and has been close to two years now I think since it was moved to the 200. That would make it unlikely to be from an egg, and I can't see even a small adult shrimp from back then still being around, yet still just 3 inches long MAYBE. I would think it would be larger by now, but no clue how fast they grow. Connie jokes that we have two and they're breeding, but again, even if it happens, after 3 years would think we would have seen something by now.

Then again, we ended up with a guerrilla crab that could have originated from nowhere else except the 55 that we didn't first see until moved to the 200 either. We know it came from there because nothing else had yet been added. The thing is huge and I can't seem to trap it.

 

[jmkarcz]

Davis put one in the sump at the nursing home... now that he's back... let's see it he remembers...


I REMEMBER SAYING SOMETHING LIKE I WOULDN'T DO IT... DOUBT HE'D REMEMBER.

hope he dosent read this... it'd be funny to see the look on his face.... course, after being gone a year, reaching blindly into a strange sump is not recommended...

J

 

[kass03]

Could also be a pistol shrimp. Alot of people get those confused.
Ive seen both but get more pistols from live rock than mantis.
I musta been lucky cuz never got a mantis on my TBS rock.
Did get one once from some shrooms from live aquaria and once from a rock from a LFS.

I don't think you can raise them from eggs. Shrimp are hard to raise and most people if any succeed at raising the types we keep in our salt aquariums.

kass

 

[scooters reef]

Yeah, and besides it not likely being viable, even if it had been an egg it would have hatched long ago and before the 200 was set up. I've only sat down there twice watching for it and haven't seen it yet to confirm. I didn't believe her twice before though, so I'm not going to discount it either

You could be right though Kass. Having had two already Connie knows what they look like, but even she admits she didn't get the greatest look and she also added the color was different than the other two we had (not that there isn't a wide color variation, but still adds another small question until I see it).

 

[Lishoop6]

sorry i don't know a whole lot about and was just shouting the first thing i thought