Snail graveyard; possible mantis

[Matt]

For a long time, we've heard clicking in our tank, and thought there may be a mantis in there somewhere. Today, when we were taking some LR out for a GHA scrub, we moved a largish rock and noticed a snail graveyard behind it. There were about 10 shells back there, and then I saw a slim, dark bullet-shaped scuttle. It moved about an inch, behind a shell, and then stopped. It was in a dark area of the tank, but I'm pretty sure it was a mantis, a bit more than 1" long (so pretty small).

There were three live snails back there (lined up for dinner?) and a bunch of dead ones. The shells weren't cracked, though. I thought that mantis' would break the shells...

We also collected three crabs in the reorganization. A "gorilla" - about 1" across, including legs. Another a bit bigger across than the gorilla, but with a much smaller body, but very long legs and pincers (not arrow-crab long, but long). Finally a very cute small purple crab. They all went into the sump - no harm there. The purple crab had the teeniest legs and pincers I've ever seen. It was almost all body, and about 1/3" across.

What fun! I guess I'll have to look into ways to trap a mantis now, since it has expensive tastes (assuming that's what it was...).