new mantis owner, not intentional, need help

[Integral9]

So I found a mantis in my tank the other day. Certainly explains all the empty shells on my sand with their sides pulverized up the 'snail trail'. The little bugger must have grown up in there since the last time I put rock in was over a year ago. I'd say he's about 2-3 inches in length now. I saw him when he was apparently, making a home by throwing near handfuls of sand out from under a rock. I went over to investigate thinking it was my (now late) rhandali pistol shrimp (Damned it!). He could also explain where my teddy bear crab and missing skunk cleaner are. (Errrrrr...)

My tank is a soft reef tank with LPS, 'shrooms, zoes and a RBTA. For live stock I have the following:

Coral Beauty
Scopas Tang
2 Black Percs
Purple Firefish
Mandarin Dragnet
blue short spine urchin
sand sifting seastar
skunk cleaner (used to have a mated pair)
fire cleaner

I started taking whats left of my cleanup crew out of the tank and moving them into my other tank for safe keeping, also so that I can lure him out into a trap. I'm either going to bring him into the fish store or (possibly) setup my 3G HT as a mantis tank. But I'm not sure if that is a good home for him. But first I have to get him out of my tank and preferably before he eats anything more I really care about.

Should I remove my urchin as well? Also, any other of my creatures on this guys meal plan? Any help would be much appreciated.

 

[Pea-brain]

He may leave the urchin alone. All shrimp are easy targets. Mandarin may be a target, and firefish COULD be in danger. All in all I'd say there not a huge rush if you take the snails out. i would suggest feeding meaty frozen food on a feeding stick every day until you set up a trap to capture it. A full mantis is less likely to hurt something. Frozen shrimp or krill will work fine for this. Once he gets used to the food you can bait a trap with it and he'll likely go in. Check out this thread for some good info http://www.stomatopod.com/forum_v3/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=71

Dan

 

[Pea-brain]

Also, 3 gallon is a little small. 5-10 gallon would be optimal most likely (assuming it is a common hitch hiking gonodactylid). These really are amazing creatures and you probably won't regret it. Most are very hardy. When you capture it get a picture of the telson (tail) and the meral spot (http://www.stomatopod.com/forum_v3/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=32) and we can probably ID it for you. Do you know where the rock is from? If it is from Florida it is likely N. wennerae.


Dan

 

[Integral9]

I'll pick up a feeding stick and frozen krill tomorrow and begin bating. I've almost got whats left of my snails out, hardley any hermits left. i made a trap last night (used frozen food) but all I caught were 3 nass. and a bumble bee.

All my rock is from figi.