catching a mantis
 

does anyone have a link, idea, or trap that works in catching a mantis shrimp. i'm fairly confident i have one in my 265g and i would like to catch him now before i fill the tank with fish and corals. any input would be great

thanks

Look on reef central they have a large archieve of what other people have done. I have caught three so far. For the first two, I figured out what rocks they were in and found them after removing the rocks and smashing them. You can also put carbonated water into the hole when you figure out which one it is in, they should jump out . The other I caught after I saw it taking out one of my cleaner shrimp . Got the dead shrimp away from it and used it as bait . Was able to catch it in a net from there. Still have at least on left in the tank just can't locate it.

Good luck!!:biggrin:

in my experience i tried everything. my first would move around it didn't seem like he had a permanent home. Not to scare ya, but, i had to eventually split a space in the middle of the tank i then put in a barrier made from egg crate covered with screen seperating the tank in half then listened and watched as soon as i figured out the side he was on i started pulling rock out. fortunatly i was able to find him as he baled out of my first pale load of rock as i relocated rock into the sump. The second time i wasn't so lucky, i would split the rock in half then split again, etc. etc. came down to 2 rocks, i cooked and recured them both. At that point i had had enough, i guess that one went to mantis college or something because he was WAy too smart. If you can see him you may be able to baite him like jkhchris did but make sure you are setup and ready before you do because he won't fall for the same trick twice.i hope you get lucky.

great sounds like i'm in for it. little bugger. my wife and i are doing a stake out tonight to try and hear where abouts he is coming from in the tank or sump

if u catch it and want to get rid of it ill take it..... ill be gone foer a few weeks returning on the 15 of nov..... let me know

mantis
 

I have one in my tank too. Plain brown little sucker with white eyes. Hides all the time so I never see the little bugger. I did try to trap him once with the inverted pop bottle trick but all I caught were my own inverts. Until recently it hasn't seemed to have any effect on the tank but the other day my cleaner shrimp up and vanished without a trace and I'm pretty sure I know where he went. Took more than 2 years to become a snack, Mr. Mantis must be growing.

quick note if you seperate the tank like i did make sure there are no cracks and the divider goes above the water line. that way you know for sure he can't get away. Unless you have 2 like i did. just imagine it's the smartest thing in the house or at least his house. lol either way it's true.

we sat in the fish room for about and hour and a half last night with lights out and flashlights in hand waiting and he didnt show. i found a crab though that i'm going to have to trap. i forgot to ask, with the inverted trap idea, what do you put in for bait?

try rubbing raw shrimp on your fingers and then poke your fingers into every cave untii the mantis finds you

how do you know you have one? i almost never saw mine only heard, they are super smart and can see and sense movement very well. If you are able to see there eyes coming out of a hole in the rock your lucky.
I've also been fooled before buy the red and white stripped snails (forgot the name)they spin around quickly back and forth and tap the glass. i wouldn't have believed it if i hadn't seen it myself.
I admire your diligence

i havent seen just heard. there is a snap that sounds like ripping fabric (the best way i can explain it) that only happens about 1/2 after all the lights are out and then every 1/2 to hour or so through the night. havent lost any snails. i'm not a 100% its a mantis but leaning towards that direction

it should sound like a marble hitting the glass< esentialy that is what they have on the end of the killer arm. mostly a non-rythmical sequence 2-4 snaps (usually 3) at a time, They will eat anything as long as they wack it first mysis for example.

it is never mutiple times only once and then stops for about an hour. it could sound like marble hitting the glass but more like thick fabric ripping. but the snaps are never more than once. do you think it could be something different. i guess it be more than one hit at a time but it is very rapid taps to sound like one

personally i have always heard multiples.
i'm thinkin it maybe something else.
????metal shifting in the lighting, the bulb cooling down, syphon bubble from a vortex of water (sounds like a hand slap onto water), snail, sometimes my tangs will wack the tank with there tail while posturing, crab snapping it's pinsers as it picks the rock, i've even had my lawnmower blenny snapping the water as he eats the alga off the eurobraceing. i wouldn't panic just yet, keep investigating.

there is no fish in the tank yet except 6 chromis, 5 snails (4 astraea and 1 turbo) the canopy is being retrofitted with lighting as we speak so there is no lighting on the tank, the syphoning or bubbling would happen all day not just night time. but i definitely appreciate the ideas.

Sounds more like you got a free pistol shrimp with your rock.

Lucky you! :)

I would say Pistal shrimp too. It almost sounds like you snapping your fingers or your glass cracking on the tank. A mantis sounds like something hard tapping on glass usually in multiples .

smellsfishy was right, i was tinkering with the tank as usual and by fluke the noise happened when i was right there and it was daytime, it is a vortex created by the vortech pump. thanks for all your guys input and thanks to smellsfishy, you just won a new car. not quite, but you get the point, thanks. i think i finally stopped the last 2 tiny leaks i had, they were on the intake and output of the dart pump where the fittings screw in. i've fought with these for 2 weeks now. today i just pulled the pump right out, snugged the fittings more, cleaned all the silicone off and jammed marine epoxy deep in the gap and threads, so far no leaks.

wooohooo a new car. it's not the hotwheels kind is it, i want a ferrari .lol haha

i had the same problem with all 3 of my sequence pump i came to the conclusion to snug them up like normal then leave them for a couple of days (catch the water though) then after the poly shell/housing settles in and stops stretching give it a 1/4 turn tighter. solved my leaks every time. after i got them sealed i invested in unions so i didn't have to take them off again, makes it easier to tighten then to.
oh yeah, it sounds backwards but make sure you don't use to much silicon tape, 3 turns on 1" then add 1 turn every 1/2" increase in diameter got that formula from a plumber who installed/repaired spas and pools, just a guilde line though, wouldn't want to be to technical/annal.
glad you found the click/false mantis problem.

i've never heard that formula before on using teflon tape. i'll definitely remember that.

yeah i though it was kindof kooky (one of those YEah RIght things)but i haven't had any problem, unless i didn't follow it. I guess it has something to do with the allowable tolerences of the threads when manufacturing, larger the pipe the larger the tolerance i guess the tape will pushback and bind if you use to much. so i'm told it sort of makes sense when you think about it.

makes sense.

mantis
 

Lucky you. The mantis in my tank used to come to feed in a crack in the rock that I had full view of and I know for sure it's a mantis. Has the weird detached slit eyes on its head. I don't notice any tapping though. I haven't seen it for a while and until my shrimp went missing it was out of sight, out of mind ...