Mantis. Why keep it?

[nickbuol]

We just found out that the popping in our tank was a mantis shrimp smashing the shells of our hermits. He has also the prime suspect in the death of several pepermint shrimp, a coral banded shrimp, and a blue star fish. Why the heck would I want to keep it? It is very colorful, so maybe that is it, but this guy has got to get out of our tank.

I am hoping to catch him tonight as I know where he has been hanging out the past 2 days. Do I dare try to net him, or go with some sort of mantis trap? He is going right into a 10 gallon to look at, etc until I figure out if I should dispose of him or what.

Any thoughts would be appreciated. I would hate to kill this pest (of my tank anyway), but I am getting sick of losing livestock, and he is only going to get bigger until he starts taking out fish.

[ISFRAEL]

get a little 10gal tank and keep him. you will find that they are great pets!
very interesting and sometimes funny to watch.
if you decide to keep it then let us (this forum) know and we can help you out with setting up a tank for it. for a tiny amount of cash you can setup a great mantis tank for an equally great critters. u wont regret it

[ChrisIsBored]

You certainly wouldn't want to keep him any longer in your reef tank, look at the damage he's already done!

But everyone else seems to enjoy having one to himself... i'm thinking of getting one too...

[ISFRAEL]

get him while you know where he is!
i highly recommend a pet mantis.

[nickbuol]

Caught him!

It was actually pretty easy. He was in a bottom piece of live rock in a cave with no other exit, so once I had a large net in front of the opening, he was mine. I scooped up the entire piece of rock and put the whole works into a 10 gallon tank with about 2.5 gallons of water. I used a little bit of Sprite, and he came right out. Now he is in a little 1 gallon hex tank that my daughter used to have a betta in years ago. It isn't much, but I don't plan on keeping this thing. He is really cool looking, and I got some good video of him last night, but I wanted to kill him so bad when he came out of the live rock (after he killed off so much of our live stock), that I fear that I wouldn't take care of him properly.

If anyone wants him, he is available. I have no idea what these guys go for, but I would be willing to sell and ship him so that someone that wants one can have one.

[kennerd]

How large is he? I might be willing to take him.

[nickbuol]

I'd say he is a good 2" maybe a hair longer...