Mantis shrimp removal

[mnat]

We were pulling some things out of our 20g when we noticed a mantis shrimp has made its home in our tank. My fiancee thought she saw one a while ago, but this morning we both saw it and yeah it is a mantis shrimp. The little bugger is about an inch long, dark and very fast. I had read if you just get the piece of liverock they are on and put it in a bucket and spray it with soda water you can get them out. However, this guy has made his burrow between the liverock and sand bed so when we went to grab the rock he shot out.

So this is really a two parter: One is there a reliable trap out there, or do we just wait till he is in his borrow again, remove everything else in the tank, then try and catch him?

Second: Does anyone want this little bugger and would be willing to help in the procurement?

Good times.......

 

[duijver]

Hey mnat,

I would be interested in taking the little guy. Mine just died about a month ago during a bad molt.

Ok, so on to the problem at hand. As you said, they are pretty quick so catching it outside of the LR is probably not going to work with a net.

1. Soda water supposedly only works sometimes, but will kill all life on the rock.
2. They do make a mantis-x trap, but it depends on the mantis if it works or how long.
3. This is a "free" trap you can try, but it looks like the mantis often "walks" out of it http://www.mantisshrimps.co.uk/articles/removal.php
4. You can choose to just keep him and spot feed him every few days. They are really interesting creatures!


Are you noticing any inverts dying? They should not hurt any corals and if he's only an inch long it's unlikely he will hurt fish. I had a 3 1/2" Smasher Mantis in the tank with a 3" Damsel and they had no problems. Obviously, anything can happen.


On the flip side.. If you were not totally in love with the piece of LR he has decided to live in then we could do a LR swap or I could buy it off of you.

 

[mnat]

We lost a flame angel last week that had been doing completely fine last week, I don't know if that was the mantis or something else. We are both going to be out and about all weekend, we may try and get him tomorrow. We have 2 five gallon acrylic tanks so if we do catch him you can have him. Thank you for the help we just have to find him again. We spooked him when we lifted up his piece of live rock, and he has not returned to the burrow yet that I can see.

I don't think we can keep him in that tank, we have 2 cleaner shrimp and a whole cleanup crew in there that I would like to keep. There are plenty of corals and three fish I would also like to keep and it is a glass tank. I agree that they are very interesting creatures when you actually want one and have the setup for them.

 

[duijver]

If you guys are going to be out and about you might want to try the water bottle trap (mantisshrimp.c.uk article). It shouldn't take you but a few minutes to make and worst case it doesn't work.

How large is the flame angel - I'm guessing at least 2 1/2" right? Unless the mantis is a spearer (unlikely as a hitchhiker) he's probably not the culprit at the size he is.. but I couldn't say for sure. Although, I would be worried about the $50+ investment in your cleaner shrimp and the clean-up crews.

The glass tank breaking problem is only an issue with really large species and even that is normally on the bottom of the tank or if they are provoked.

I appreciate the offer and I will definitely take you up on that. You could also setup a small species tank yourself

 

[Hawkeye]

i'd be shocked if a 1 inch mantis killed a flame angel...unless by sheer luck he somehow got the fish stuck in it's burrow and repeatedly slammed him.

I've previously gotten my mantis shrimp out by taking the rock out, (with bucket underneath) and dosing RO water right into the hole the guy is in. Caution - sometimes they shoot out so fast you think they will crawl right onto you. Centipede like.

Experience: 5 mantis shrimp caught.

Mine were all smasher types from the gulf of mexico. I gave mine away to the Brooklyn Aquarium Society - this was before i moved to NJ and before MR even existed (at least to me).

Good luck catching it.

 

[mnat]

Thanks Hawkeye, if we can corner him in a piece of live rock, we will try the RO trick. The flame was about 1".

 

[duijver]

Did you try the makeshift water-bottle contraption?

 

[mnat]

No, we had a death in the family and have been out of town since saturday.
We bought the x-trap today, we'll keep you posted.

 

[RU_Coral_Guy]

ah, too bad you already bought a trap... i've had them show up as hitch hikers and was able to catch them with a DIY trap I made with some PVC parts and drill. There was one that was able to elude capture for years... until my burrfish got him.

 

[mnat]

Unfortunately the fiancee and I are not very good do it yourselfers... buying the trap was probably a lot cheaper than cutting ourselves with a razorblade would have been.
Unfortunately I don't think the gobies or the longnosed hawk are going to catch and eat the mantis, but we'll keep you updated if we don't have luck with the trap.

 

[RU_Coral_Guy]

Good luck with trying to catch it. If you do, you may want to consider keeping a small species tank for it.. IMHO they are neat little buggers (as long as they aren't killing my fish )
However, as it grows... I highly recommend a thick glass or acrylic tank... as they (some species at least) have been known to break glass up to 1/4" thick!

 

[mnat]

We have a 5 gallon acrylic tank at the ready when we catch him. Someone has already claimed him now the task is catching him. He moved a mushroom over the entrance to his cave so you can't even see if he is inside or not. We will just have to be patient.

 

[mnat]

An update: We finally baited and setup the trap this morning and promptly caught a shrimp....our cleaner shrimp. We released him and promptly caught the other one. So we are going to have to remove the cleaners and go from there. So good news: the trap works and now we know how to get cleaners out of a tank, Bad news: mantis still at large.

 

[duijver]

lol Cleaners are easy to catch. Mine always come to me for food and they normally get a free ride around the tank.

Have you seen the shrimp at all?

Keep me updated. If you want, I will buy the trap from you.. that is if it ever catches him

 

[mnat]

We have been super super busy over the last few weeks, so the trap will offically go in tonight when we both get home from work. We are going to pull the cleaners out and we will keep you updated. As soon as we get it, it's yours.

 

[magic]

Hey, this looks like a post that was deleted from another website... only kidding.

Bob

 

[NikkiT]

this is the nt half of mnat, still no luck with catching the mantis shrimp...

 

[duijver]

It might be time to try the water bottle trap?

At this point... it's worth a shot.

 

[mnat]

We are going to try the water bottle, the trap is too sensitive. We have caught many of our snails in there but no mantis shrimp.

 

[Scottyrock]

dip the rock in saltwater thats 1040.anything on the rock thats alive will shoot out and you can wrangle it up. thats what we used to do where i used to work. if you listen to your tank at night you can hear them "clicking"...wich is actually them boring holes inside your rock