I have a question on these mantis shrimp

[katspaw]

I have recently discovered a mantis shrimp in my 90 gallon reef tank. The thing has bored a hole in a frag with one of my Acropora's on it. More than likely it came with the coral. Anyhoo, How do I remove it from the tank, without hurting the coral? Any ideas. I don't want to hurt the shrimp if I don't have to. Oh, and By the by, mine doesn't make the clicking noise. I thought that the pistol shrimp did that.


Katspaw

[kalim]

There is a list of possible soultions at:
http://www.blueboard.com/mantis/pest.htm

I am not sure whether any are relevant to your case...maybe someone here or in the general discussion has had a similar experience...

I would ask though whether it is necessary for you to
do any extreme actions since the inhabitant has proven benign so far...

good luck anyways.

[moviegeek]

Read the info at the Lurker's Guide to Stomatopods linked above. Good luck, it isn't always an easy task.

[kalim]

in addition, there's been some info running around lately about using night vision or infrared goggles (no, seriously) at night to track one if it comes out (which shows how desperate some people have become)...

infrared, since the thing isn't warm blooded wouldn't it be hard to see it anyways? night vision using light amplification though, that would be cool to use...

[bev]

An attempt to dislodge a mantis shrimp from his entrenched hiding place is an effort in frustration...

Everything live on a single piece of our newest live rock began disappearing. No waving brittle arms at night, mussel shells crushed. I finally found the culprit yesterday while staring at the new rock for some time. A finger size deep hole in the rock held the cutest pair of eyes. I had no idea what it was except that it's eyes moved independently and it looked very strange. Shrimp-like except the eyes looked like a crab. I waved a piece of silverfish in front of it and he zipped out of his hole and grabbed it and was back in it so quick all I could tell was that I had a green part shrimp part millipede in there! I called my hubby to come see my neat green millipede and he diagnosed the dreaded mantis shrimp and said he had to go. Our live rock was no longer alive with critters and our blue damsel had a large gash in his side that couldn't have come from the peaceful tang or lazy clown. So I agreed the mantis would have to go.

LOL! Agreeing on it and seeing it done are two entirely different things.

I was confident I could lure him out with the waving meat and I did. But he never lets his tail leave the hole and he's too quick to catch with the net. So we isolated his rock to it's own bucket. Tried more bait and catch, tried bamboo stick gently to probe him out the other end, tried blunt end table knife to persuade him out. He whacked it so hard it felt like an electric shock passing through the metal. Nothing worked. Shaking rock upside down got us nothing, finally hooked up large suction tube and wedged it in his hole, still no sign of him. Thoroughly frustrated by this point we poured cool faucet water into his hole, he ignored the water except for backing further into the hole. We then tried club soda which we'd read would convince him to abandon his post. Not this fellow, he reacted like it was a fine thing to bathe in club soda. Last, we used hot water and he perished quickly and while not as humanely as I'd have liked, at least he didn't have to dry out and suffer for three days. It was quick. However we still could not get him out of the rock. No amount of prying with knife, bamboo stick etc would dislodge him. We gave up on the live rock, found a hammer and busted it open whereupon he was finally dislodged, thoroughly examined and found to be perfect match with pictures of Gonodactylus chiragra and about 2.5 inches of fascinating body structure.

I hate to be discouraging but if I had it to do all over again, I think I'd just take the live rock back to the store and hand it over, give it to my worst enemy, or perhaps sell or donate it on the net as "lovely live-rock and mantis - mated pair free to good home". :-)

Funny I havent' read of mantis loving stars, but the rock was entirely cleaned of any and all life and it had been a cornucopia of brittle stars. Either they wisely moved out in a hurry or he feasted well.

-Bev Alstrom

Btw, a friend who bought rock from the same tank on the same day had one in his rock also. But his mantis abandoned the hole easily after being poked at and is now in a smaller container. But before being removed from the tank, he devoured about 1/2 of a 6-inch Florida Starfish in just days! The things are ravenous. The starfish lost a leg the first night, it appeared to have been shredded. The second night two more legs went, his body had been primarily consumed and had what looked like rake marks over it and he had perished. The only other thing in the tank was a small percula clown who is too lazy to find a piece of food set down right beside him.

[katspaw]

Bev:

Thanks for the warning. I still have the mantis in my tank, Along with six starfishes that are still intacted. I have one blue linkia that loves to hang out on that side of the tank too. But I target feed the mantis, with brine shrimp. He doesn't come out of his hiding place either and unfortunately, his hole is on a rock with one of my best pieces of Arcopora on it. I will live with the mantis til I can figure out a safe way to get him out without killing the coral. Or until he starts to hurt any of my other tank mates.

Katspaw

[Scotty]

Hey Katspaw, keep that mantis! Mantis are niether killers nor insatiable hunters. I've found that if food is plentiful, they have no interest in expending the energy it takes to catch fish or leave thier cranny to munch starfish. They become killers in aquariums because they begin to starve before you realize they're even there. Maybe keep the little guy fed and you can keep him. Although you may want to feed him something meatier than brine shrimp to keeep his belly full.

[Q-ball]

Interesting thought Scotty, keeping him in the reef, just making him happier to be there. A happy shrimp is a non-killer shrimp?;) FWIW, mine gets a piece of freeze-dried krill 2-3times per week. Good luck!

Q!!!