Mantis shrimp blues

[casalt]

I've heard my mantis now for months without ever seeing him. I've tried the x-terminator trap which is really cheap. If you use krill for bait , the trap fills up with snails. Ok put the snails in another tank, still no luck. plastic bottle with inverted top and another emarld crab, the crab got out . My choices now are to live with it until its too big to hide or start tearing it apart and dipping the rock, which means starting over on the cycle. The other night me and wife started hearing the pops and we both ran over with flashlights and he was still a poppin, but still no visual on the beasty. Oh ya we also got a capenters fairy wrasse and he is way cool. The tanks been up for four months and we have purple coraline everywhere even on the base rock. 10% water changes every week work great. The pulsing has split twice and is still growing wow. The system has beeen without a skimmer for 2 weeks now, but we need to wait a couple more weeks for the finances to catch up, going to get a new G-1. The sedra pumps for them are almost the same price as a complete skimmer huh. We had the mini g which uses a clone sedra, not the real deal. It only lasted a few months, I would recommend using the G-1 and up. Gotta go to work now, I'm still looking for the better mouse trap so to speak.... hahaha

 

[philter4]

Are you sure it's a mantis, snapping shrimp also make the sound and they are usually much harder to find. If it is they are generally reef safe so you wouldn't have to remove him. The other thing about mantis is the way they hunt, they are either piercers or smashers, piercers kill fish shrimp and crabs so they are dangerous for the tank, smashers eat clams and snails so do less damage (unless you like tridacnids) but the point is if it is a smasher they may not go to the same bait that a peircer would. Before you give up try switching the bait to frozed clam or muscle to see if that works.

 

[gsechen]

yeah pistol shrimps also make a snapping noise and most are not deadly to other creatures..

 

[shiveley]

Hey, if you have a mantis, and can catch him, I'd love to take him off your hands. Those guys are fascinating....

 

[casalt]

I lost 3 turbo's and 4 emarlds, the snails were gone , but the emarlds were entact but dead. Each day another crab all in the same spot. I havent lost any fish. Oh and my one last emarld is hiding between two rocks for over a month and he never comes out. I'll try the clam for bait, it's hard when eveything else in the tank goes for the same bait. I even tryed taking all the snails out after the did a clown car thing with the exterminator trap, funny it was packed tight with snails in minutes. If I get him fat he wont be able to hide from me anymore. do a "you tube" search for mantis shrimp, thats the exact sound I have in my tank.

 

[kdblove_99]

I would tear it down now and get it out.

 

[Balgie]

Yep get that rock out, or two, or three however many to make the noise stop

 

[casalt]

Is fresh water dip the best or is there a better way so i dont lose everything.