Need help catching mantis...Any bait ideas?

[jcardona]

I have a small mantis in my tank. He already ate a sick Cleaner shrimp a sick Scott's Damsel and a healthy firefox goby. I still have a few Turbo snails (which I don't know if he will eat), another cleaner shrimp and a pair of perculas. I've set up 3 clear water bottle traps with raw slad shrimps inside. I've cought the cleaner shrimp twice but never the Mantis. Altough I've seen it burrowing under the bottle. I need to know if there is a better bait or trap method. I want to add more fish but need to remove the mantis first.

 

[beelzebob]

i stole this from my own post :


if its small enough,and you have the patience....

an almost sure bet would be tospend $5 on a foot long piece of pvc like no more than an inch in diameter, a 3 in piece of the same pvc , a 90º elbow, and an encap

put this all togeather. (make an "L")

stick a nice fat cube of mysis all the way down in the bottom, in the cap, past the elbow.

sink it, stick it in the sand with the L side just under the sand.

(this should all be done at bed time)

turn out the lights. crack a beer.

(not to many you have to be sharp)

wait. when you see that lil bugger go down the tube to get his food, reach in slow, grab fast the open end, and in the tube with the food you should have a mantis dude!



figured this out at my bud's place. he setting up a 45 gal reef and got a hitchhiker mantis. a trip to to home depot and a 12pac later, my friend now has a sweet green mantis in his sump's fuge.

also, dont put you hand over the top, hold it like a beer bottle, then you wont get wounded.

 

[jcardona]

Would it work also by using mysis on a clear water bottle with the top inverted inside?

 

[beelzebob]

thats a common DIY trap. if you dont babysit it, the lil guy can get out. also, that traps kinda hard to grab.

but either way, the best thing to do is babysit your traps, and nab that lil bugger asap!

they're too smart to be trapped in anything for a long period of time.

 

[jcardona]

I've placed 3 traps with frozen shrimps overnight for about 3 weeks now and no luck getting the Mantis out. I really need suggestions on hoe to improve my chances. When you say babysit do you mean spending the whole night waiting untill it gets in? I am not sure if he has gone in and out already since the shrim tends to get soft overnight and it's hard to know if the mantis has aeaten any of it.

 

[beelzebob]

yea you gotta go at it like a marine.

id say sit up one night, and try to locate exactaly where the lil bastard has set up shop. (Recon)

then try to identify what he likes to eat (know your foe fool!)

if you find his lair, observe him for a while. maybe he's not into mysis. when you feed does he pop out? what else do you feed your tank. (identify his weakness)


so if you know what it likes to eat, and where it lives, dont feed for like a day or two, set up the pvc L trap and babysit it. (whait for the whites of his eyes.... metaphorically, and exploit his hunger )

that means sit there and readily wait until you see him go in, and grab that quick. (patience young grasshopper)

he's not going to get stuck or trapped in there, it works by being patient and attentive.

worked for me because my homies mantis would come out to grab mysis whenever he fed his fish.

didn't feed for one day, ploped the tube in and we saw the lil guy go in about an hour later.

.