If I use the 'bottle method' of catching the little bugger
 

What bait should I use and would he be ok dining on brine shrimp (of which I have lots) or does he really eat only live prey?

My suggestion is a bottle trap baited with clam or mussel from your super market. Feed the same when it's in your 33 gallon.

And whatever you do dont handle it.

i got a 2" smithii in a 10 gal.

if you can get at the rock hes hiding in, use like a chopstick er somethin to poke him out. thats how i got my guy out.

G. chiragra. Yes a 33g would be plenty large, but it will get lost in there and you'll likely never see it. I suggest a 10g, but line the bottom with strips of acrylic... they are one of the hard hitters when they get bigger. tankmates can be just about anything you wouldn't mind losing; fast water column dwelling things stand a better chance. damsels for instance. Also, nothing that might eat the mantis (lions, triggers, puffers, octopus, other mantis shrimp, etc). for removal, i suggest the bottle trap.

http://www.mantisshrimps.co.uk/articles/removal.php

Perhaps a dumb question, but what is a "hard hitter"?
 

Does this animal have the force to take out the floor of the aquarium??

So the bottle trap is set now.....I baited it with raw shrimp (the irony) I happen to have in the freezer. Will that be something it'll go for, and how often should I change the bait if it goes untaken?

Mantis shrimp can break glass panels and throw rocks. The bottom of the tank is probably safe... any of the side panels may not be.

FYI, Mantis shrimp aren't really shrimp at all, so you don't have to worry about him feeling like a cannibal. Not that he would mind :lol:

I plumbed in a little acrylic 5 gallon into my system for my mantis shrimps new home. Catching him was more difficult for me. I ended up getting the rock he lived in out of my tank and actually had to drill a hole in the back of it with a chisle to get him out.

For some of the larger smasher mantis, estimated that the impact blow equals that of a bullet from a 22-caliber gun- comparable to a compressed air jack hammer! No wonder that there are reports about mantis having smashed thick aquarium windows. "The Modern Reef Aquarium Fossa, Nilsen"

you got it backwards. almost all of tank breaks by mantids are because the mantis is digging a hole and wants to smash through the mysterious clear obstruction. Tank breaks in general are rare, and side panel breaks are rare within those. Another "common" (still rare) thing is having a mantis chip the edge of glass panels; usually not structurally damaging.

they can throw rocks but nothing larger than themselves and not very hard. certainly not hard enough to do any damage to anything.

Only a handful can actually break glass. Mostly only the large species like large Odontodactylids like O. scyllarus (peacock). G. chiragra is a smaller species but also has the hardest hit for its body size of all Stomatopods (although not the actual hardest i think) and can break through 1/4" glass.

edit: I would change bait every day so the stuff doesn't rot and foul water quality. maybe every couple for shrimp, but definitely daily for something like a clam (decomposes faster)