[untamed]

When I setup my SW tank (FOWLR) in the early 90's, I had a mantis in the tank for about 1 year before I saw it. I immediately blamed it for killing a fish and killed it. (I was a newbie and ill-informed)

I converted my FOWLR to a reef in late 2003. In that shipment of LR, I also got a mantis. This time, I removed him to a separate 2 gallon tank where he lived alone for about 4 years. He was/is an entertaining pet.

When I completed construction of my LAST aquarium, I received about 6-7 mantis in my LR shipments. This time, I elected to just leave them in the tank. When I shut down the old system, I also transferred in my previous pet mantis.

It has probably been 6 months now since I've seen a mantis in the system. I suspect they may have all died, or...they've just become very secretive. I would like to think that they are still in there. I certainly continue to hear loud "snaps", but these could also be pistol shrimp as I received many, many of those in the same shipment.

So...my advice is to just leave them be. The common hitching smashers aren't fish killers, and hermit crabs are dime-a-dozen. I also witnessed my mantis hunting/killing pest crabs, so some might consider them a beneficial hitchiker in that respect.