hunting a stomatopod

[justinl]

Okay, first of all, don't kill it. There are quite a few people out there who would gladly relieve you of your “pest”. see the sticky "shipping a stomatopod". By far the most likely hitch hiking mantids are small and smashers. i have yet to see any spearer hitchers or any of the large species hitching (although im assured that some small spearers can).

on to the "meat." there's a whole lot of ways to extract a mantis dead or alive, but here's a couple of my favorite/most mantis friendly methods. Some people get frustrated trying to remove a mantis, i had success within 6 hours with the bottle trap... so i wouldnt know what it's like.

step one: make sure there's a mantis. not a pistol shrimp, not a fish snapping the air, not a heater, not a shell tapping the glass, etc etc. otherwise you're just hunting shadows. and know how to tell the difference between a pod to a mantis. once you've done that...

1) the bottle trap (i even have pics and a visual tutorial scroll on down): simple enough device often hailed as the best method… if you can get it to work. Just get a simple disposable water bottle (water bottle only please, not pop or anything that has ever had soap in it) and cut off the top third or so (the tapering bit with the mouthpiece). If the mouthpiece is too small cut it so that the mantis can get through it (make sure you dont overdo it though). Invert it and stick it in the bottom two thirds. next, cut a door; this will be used to get the mantis out of the trap if it is successful. now cut a small hole through the lip of the trap and thread a zap strap through it. attach a string the strap; this will be used to remove the trap from the tank. put an elastic around the whole thing and stick a weight in the elastic (i dont suggest a banana... dont bananas float anyways? maybe ill try a kiwi next time). Now bait the trap with any fleshy marine food like krill or silverside; I wouldn’t use bivalve meat like clam or scallop since those decompose faster. Now place the trap in the tank for the duration of the day (mantids are diurnal).
There are some tricks to this method. Mantids will make a burrow in the rock so if you can find the burrow, place the trap so the opening is close and facing the borrow entrance. The second trick is patience: this might take a while, so remove and replace uneaten bait with fresh bait every day. Third trick is go away. I am serious, get in the car and take a trip to the lfs, walk the dog, just don’t let anyone near the tank for at least eight hours. And lastly, don’t feed the tank for a while. The point is the make the mantis hungry enough to go get the food in the trap.
2) The dips: Dips work best if you know where the mantis is. That way you don’t have to remove and dip every single piece of rock in the tank. there are a few dip methods so here are a few. Remove rock, swish violently in a bucket of saltwater (this is my preferred method after the bottle trap). OR, remove rock, swish violently in freshwater (note that inverts are sensitive to fast changes in salinity... i dont like this particular method that much myself). OR, remove rock, squirt carbonated water into all the holes.

get parental supervision kids! or better yet, get a responsible adult to handle the cutting for you. razors are sharp! dont run with scissors! if you cut your finger off, it's not my fault.


this is what the door should end up as. except closed... im holding it just slightly open so you can see what i did.


close up on how i attached the strap removal... thingy. it also serves to anchor the two pieces of the bottle together.


almost finished


end product! ... peanut butter jelly time anyone?


well, that's all i got for now. feel free to add your own successful hunting methods if you like. good hunting you poor schmucks.

[lexxx]

Thanks A million for posting this justinl. I saw some other traps that called for pvc pipe, and drilling, and blah blah blah. This trap was easy and effecient. I discovered that I had a Mantis shrimp yesterday after giving my tank a cleaning. It all makes sense now....some of my snails were dead and a blue damsel was mysteriously missing. So after reading this post, I followed your directions and made the trap. I tied a piece of fishing string around the middle of the bottle and tied it to small piece of live rock that was in the tank. For bait I put a few silversides in the bottle. I placed the bottle near his hideout and within 15 minutes he emerged. He would climb on it, around it, but he wouldn't go in it. I figured his crazy eyes probably were staring me down the whole time. So I left the room for a mere 15 minutes and came back and he was in there! That was easy. I know this picture isn't the best, but here's the proof. I'm going to take him to the LFS tomorrow.

[justinl]

congrats! im glad it worked so well for you too 15 minutes! wow, that has to be some kind of record.

[Pea-brain]

This is definately sticky-worthy. Have you joined the stomatopod.com forum? If you post this there it'll get stickied

Dan

[tebmsu97]

Just a question, do you have to cut the door in the side? Couldn't you just cut the zip strap and remove the bottle top and pour the Mantis out of the bottom?

Not sure if I see any advantage to this change, but what the heck it is one less step.

[lexxx]

I didn't cut the trap door or use the top zip strap - i'm lazy hahahah. Once it was in there i just grabbed the bottle, pulled it apart, and dropped the mantis into my hospital tank.

[justinl]

tebmsu97, no the door isnt really a necessary step. the only reason i cut the door in, was to make the trap reuseable. as you can tell from lexxx's experience, it works the same, door or not.

dan: i thought about it, but i didnt know if trapping a mantis really fit in on a forum managed by people who sell mantids. but if you think it fits, then Ill post it there too.