Mantis ID - and help getting rid of it

[harday]

I posted this in the Mantis forum too - but for those of you here, anyone know which one this is? This was a hitchhiker on my first part of the package from TBS. It's very beautiful in color, but I need to get rid of it. My clean up crew arrives in one week. I have tried the bottle trap to no avail. This guy just doesn't leave his hole from what I can tell after spending countless hours in front of the tank. He's in a huge rock on the bottom, so taking the rock out is simply not an option. PLEASE HELP!

 

[Misled]

Fill a bucket with non-flavored carbonated water and mix to salinity of main tank. Put rock in for about 5 min. When you remove the rock, he'll be in the bottom of the bucket. Save him or at least take him to the LFS.

 

[harday]

This is a huge rock on the bottom of the tank. I damn near broke the tank getting the rock in, so it's not coming out again. Any other ideas?

 

[dc]

It's quite pretty, some people have all the luck. I would love to have that kind of hitchiker.

 

[harday]

it is very pretty - the pics don't do him justice. Right now though, he is giving the finger to the bottle trap.

 

[msman825]

I'd leave him in there, not unless he;s bothering things

 

[coralfever]

I think it is a Peacock Mantis but i'm not sure. Hard to tell from the pic. Whatever it is it looks cool.

 

[jmait769]

harday - I was in the same boat with my TBS rock. I thought I would just keep the two that came with the rock. But after a month the largest one started breaking off the rock around the hole he was in. Was whacking the tar out of the rock night and day! I tried the trap also and he would just sit there looking at it all day. I even tried to harpoon him in desperation. Forget about it! He would whack the sharpened end of the stainless steel rod I was using then head back into the rock. I could not get it close enough and he was way to fast. I know you said the rock wasn’t coming out but in the end that is what I had to do. I observed the hole he was in and I used a turkey baster which I used to shoot the carbonated water up into instead of how jllndmb stated. His was my next option! With the carbonated water he jumped out of that hole so fast my helper almost dropped the rock! The smaller one was easer to remove and someone off of the Mantis thread paid to have them shipped to Chicago. You may want to look thru the very long <a href="http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=7339859#post7339859" target="_blank">Our TBS</a> thread for some other ideas but I can’t remember any. I wish you luck!

Here is a picture of mine:

Jay

 

[msman825]

take you a shop vac, and a 6-8 foot piece of water hose , put the water hose up in the shop vac hose and duct tape them together real good. stick the waterhose in tank to the hole, he will come out and thumb the end of hose. turn shop-vac on and you will here him hit the bottom. it will suck him out of there

 

[wickedfood]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9276329#post9276329 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by coralfever
I think it is a Peacock Mantis but i'm not sure. Hard to tell from the pic. Whatever it is it looks cool.

I think it's a wennerae (sic?). i also got one in my TBS rock. Aside from smashing/eating the barnacles and clams off the rock, it never bothered anything--that goes for fish, hermits and snails. He'd come out of his den whenever I fed the tank--LOVED frozen krill!. Eventually he became comfortable and would wander out for extended periods, which is when I netted him and sold him to the LFS.

 

[ukcats]

Harday, where are you located? If you get him out would you sell him? Ship? Thanks!

 

[harday]

Thanks for the replies - I know which hole he is in, and it's not deep at all. It just runs across the corner of the rock, so if I could get the rock out, it would be fairly easy. Unfortunately, the rock is very big and very heavy, and on the bottom. I'm not lying when I said I almost broke the tank putting it in. My tank is on a high stand, and it was a beast in get in. Taking the rock out will be my absolute last resort, and that will only be if starts killing stuff like crazy.

Jay, did you get the other mantis out, or is he still in there? I have 3 that I know of, but the other two are much smaller.

Now, the shop vac idea - that is an interesting one indeed. I must say it's defintely not one I thought of before. So you really think this could work without killing it? I know it sounds funny, but I don't want to kill it. It's not his fault he's in there.

Maybe I will leave it and see how he does. If I got lucky and he left things alone, then I would be fine with it. And, if they truly become more comfortable over time and start crusing around, I'm assuming he would be easier to catch then. I just don't know at this point, but if I do catch him alive, then I would be willing to ship, at no cost other than shipping. I am in Florida.

Thanks again for the help. .

 

[Cosmo^Kramer]

I used a x-terminator and baited it with shrimp to catch 2 mantis.

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/produ...&Ntx=mode+matchallpartial&Np=1&pc=1&N=0&Nty=1

 

[leoskee]

I had a mantis in my tank for a number of years and did not know it until he fell out of a piece of live rock I took out of the tank. He just plopped onto the kitchen counter as I was trying to break off some zoas with a hammer and chisel.

I wish I had kept him but instead I put him in a hot cup of water and killed him (I know, I know...inhumane). It was about an inch and a half.

 

[jmait769]

harday - I did get them both at the same time. Funny, the little guy was harder than the large one and took more seltzer water blasts but he came out of his hole after the second or third blast. I found this picture which you can see the hole where the larger one lived. You can see the white area at the bottom of the hole. For whatever reason this is where he liked to hammer on the most.

msman825 â€"œ That is one I have not heard of before. My mantis loved to whack whatever I put in front of the hole so it may work! Might be a mess if you leave it on to long or start a siphon!!

Jay