Mantis has seriously outstayed his welcome

[Reefer Steve]

This mantis came i the rock on pt. 2 of the package and remains with me almost 6 months later. How would you guys go about removing it?
(besides dipping the rock he lives in as it has many sponges/tunicates)

 

[HowardW]

The easiest way will be to remove the rock he lives in and either manually extract him using something like 3/16" rigid airline tubing or a thin wooden skewer, or to flush him out of his tunnel using a quick forceful shot or two of very cold seltzer water from a syringe. If using the seltzer water, just get it into his tunnel and don't splash it all over the rock or dip the entire rock. Some have also had success quickly dipping the entire rock in either a weaker or stronger saltwater bath, something like 1.010 or 1.040 which may cause him to flee his hiding place and also won't hurt the other life on the rock.

Baited in tank traps are typically not very effective, especially if the mantis is a long term resident.

 

[Untamed12]

Re: Mantis has seriously outstayed his welcome

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10621473#post10621473 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Reefer Steve
This mantis came i the rock on pt. 2 of the package and remains with me almost 6 months later. How would you guys go about removing it?
(besides dipping the rock he lives in as it has many sponges/tunicates)

Why are you keen to remove him? What has he been up to in the past 6 months? (I have 6 in my system, and I hardly ever even see them anymore...)

 

[Reefer Steve]

Re: Re: Mantis has seriously outstayed his welcome

Re: Re: Mantis has seriously outstayed his welcome

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10627575#post10627575 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Untamed12
Why are you keen to remove him? What has he been up to in the past 6 months? (I have 6 in my system, and I hardly ever even see them anymore...)

Devastating my invert life that I am more keen on preserving.

 

[techreef]

having been a former mantis-hater, i would now side with Untamed12 and probe you to try and look for other predators after lights out. I have 6 pistol shrimp in my tank which are getting more openly aggresive than I ever saw any of my mantis shrimp being. I also had a 3" long polyclad flatworm hitchhiker in my TBS tank. They are confirmed snail killers, but unless you spot it/them out and about, you'll never find them. they are like the Blob, and can ooze into just about any crevice. Good luck! if you truly want the mantis out, with the smart/stubborn ones, i always had to suck it up and pull their home rock out of the display and spray their holes with seltzer water to drive them out.

 

[Reefer Steve]

Got him, boiled him

Made a snare from rigid airline tubing and put 20 lb test through it. I lured him out the cave with food and my girlfriend snared it!
ill post a pic later

 

[kawicivic]

mantis wrangling at its finest!!!

 

[wintercool97]

That would have been fun to see! Did he buck alot?

 

[Reefer Steve]

Yes he made quite a fuss snapping non stop until the end...
Amazing how well you can her it is even when not striking anything outside of water!

Now I can get a clam and fish! Hoorah!

 

[scowiii]

Nice Harpooning.

 

[wintercool97]

He looks like the queen from Aliens!

 

[Reefer Steve]

I contemplated eating him to get his powers

 

[wintercool97]

:lol:

 

[Untamed12]

Now I can get a clam and fish! Hoorah! [/B]

That mantis was not a threat to fish or clams. Its too bad that you felt that you had to kill him..there are a lot of people who would have gladly taken him off your hands.