TBS Bandit Captured!

[Fountainhead]

Hey, it's been a little slow here, so how about a photo of TBS stowaway Marty The Mantis, captured on April Fools Day after two weeks of mano a mano battling between the two of us. I finally got the upper mano on him. Smile Marty.
<img src="http://mywebpages.comcast.net/kschannen/takenalive2.jpg" alt="" border="0">

 

[tlouie]

good looking little guy

 

[docklink]

Re: TBS Bandit Captured!

Hey, it's been a little slow here, so how about a photo of TBS stowaway Marty The Mantis, captured on April Fools Day after two weeks of mano a mano battling between the two of us. I finally got the upper mano on him. Smile Marty.

LOL. Good show

good looking little guy

That it is, nice coloration. How big is it?

 

[Fountainhead]

Well, he won't consent to a formal measurement, but he looks to be about 2 1/2 inches to me.

 

[Bax]

Wow, he's big!

The first one I cuaght was only a little over an inch. I am still looking for one more but have never even laid eyes on him. Was this the first time you saw him that you were able to catch him? Or was he teasing you with occasional glimpses?

 

[Fountainhead]

I spotted him, and also another one (RIP) within a couple of days of putting in the rock, which was two weeks ago today. I knew exactly where he was, as he was always in the same hole. I even got in the habit of feeding him hunks of Krill from the end of a turkey baster. He'd pop out and snag it right from the end.

So the two big Mantis that I had seen are gone. I was feeling pretty good about that, but I was just down by the tank and I heard unmistakable "clicks" again. If there's another one, that'll be a bummer, as I have no idea where that one could be.

 

[MsReefer]

I am feeling your pain. It's 2 1/2 wks since my 2nd TBS shipment and I am still hunting down 1-2 mantis. I cought one about two weeks ago by removing my rocks and forcing him out. Luckily, my three peppermint shrimp that came with my package have been real troopers.

 

[landlord]

He is a most beautiful specimen. The other day I caught another one in my TBS. Its funny, he crawled into an upside-down turbo snail shell thinking he was all big and mighty. Low and behold there was a pretty large blue legged hermit holed up inside. The hermit grabbed the mantis by the tail and would let go. For some reason the mantis could spin around to whack at the hermit and was basically whacking as best he could at the side of the shell. I was able to net the shell, mantis and all.

It was a good day!

kurt

 

[Bax]

That's great landlord! Power to the hermits! The phantom mantis in my tank is baggin about one larger (a 3/4" green variety from the LFS) hermit a week and has wiped out my barnacles and the flat oysters. It's been almost three months and I've not seen so much as a shadow.

One day though...

 

[mx250]

Don't think that clicks must equal mantis! I got 3 mantis and 10+ pistol shrimp with my 150lbs. The pistol shrimp are much louder - snapping now as I type.

The pistols are pretty cool - one large orange one that owns the "world" under the rock, and a whole bunch of little green ones that live in holes in the rock. All still going strong after more than a year.

The mantids now have their own place in my basement sump - a little too nasy to be upstairs playing with my (small) crabs, snails, and hermits.

 

[Bruddah Chrispy]

In the 6+ months since I've gotten my 40g package I've been able to convince myself that the clicking and popping were just snails rapping their shells agains the acrylic. And occasionally it was. But now that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (our prized peppermint shrimp) are dead and Eeyore (one of the two cukes) is missing,, I can no longer fool myself. The hunt is on.

Yesterday I set up my QT and started plucking the suspect rocks from the tank. I'd set them in a tupperware bin for 10 minutes and then transfer them to the QT, in a reverse of the TBS procedures. So far I've found one pistol shrimp, less than 1/2" long who snaps like he's trying to hail a cab.

Last night there was still clicking in the main tank...

 

[delta]

that is one cool mantis

keeping it?