Found small mantis, now what?

drtechno · #1 09/29/2007, 06:27 PM

Hi guys

I have a 20g setup LR/LS fish and coral
A couple days ago, me and my wife found a mantis shrimp hanging out in the tank.. had just enough time to confirm its a mantis before it hid again.

Question is, now what? He is approximately 1 inch at the moment.. I imagine it would be far easier to catch him after he gets bigger and it seems he is too small to harm the fish (1 clown, 1 6-line wrasse, flame angel, 1 goby) or the fire shrimp.

Do I need to try to trap him now or do I wait for him to grow a bit?

Also, if I set a trap for him, won't I catch my emerald crab, hermit crab or fire shrimp too?

Lehman · #2 09/29/2007, 07:26 PM

You can try the trap but you will probably have alot more success in finding out which rock hes hiding it in and pulling it out and do a hypo or freshwater dip.

Angel7989 · #3 09/30/2007, 12:32 AM

if your going to remove it from your tank, dont kill it but let us know on the forum and someone will take it

abrahamcho · #4 09/30/2007, 01:00 AM

IF you dont want it i will take it!!! I am really desperate trying to find one!! Freshwater dip is most effective or you can use soda water and it will run out real quick!

drtechno · #5 09/30/2007, 03:30 PM

Thanks for letting me know about offering him a new home..

The only trick is I have no idea what rock he is in or under since I've only seen him once, and more importantly, our tank is pretty set up with interlocked and glued rocks.. making their removal very very difficult...

I was thinking of trying some kind of mantis trap first.. but you think it even worth catching him at this size or should I wait until he gets bigger?? Will it be easier once he gets bigger?

abrahamcho · #6 10/01/2007, 09:30 PM

Thing the is that if you wait, you MIGHT forget about it and it might grow a little bigger and it might take down your shrimp and our fish. TO your best interest I think you should just set up a trap and try to capture it and then spill the trap out into a bowl and take out the other inverts that have been trapped and then isolate the mantis! Best if you use brine shrimp!!! TELL me how it goes. TTFn

Fuzznutz · #7 10/02/2007, 09:18 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by drtechno
Hi guys

I have a 20g setup LR/LS fish and coral
A couple days ago, me and my wife found a mantis shrimp hanging out in the tank.. had just enough time to confirm its a mantis before it hid again.

Question is, now what? He is approximately 1 inch at the moment.. I imagine it would be far easier to catch him after he gets bigger and it seems he is too small to harm the fish (1 clown, 1 6-line wrasse, flame angel, 1 goby) or the fire shrimp.

Do I need to try to trap him now or do I wait for him to grow a bit?

Also, if I set a trap for him, won't I catch my emerald crab, hermit crab or fire shrimp too?

I would say your Fire shrimp, emerald crab, hermits, snails and Goby are in the most danger. I have caught 4 mantis in my rock and I lost 2 peppermint shrimp, many snail and hermits, 1 goby. Traps (both the "pest" and home made bottle type) did not work for me, pulling the rock was the best way. Good luck!

tush · #8 10/02/2007, 12:42 PM

depending on the type of mantis... one of mine (unidentified) lives in my reef tank with 2 cleaners and 6 fire shrimp - and he is scared to death of them. hes about 2'' long so its not a size thing - i have 6 peppermint in there also - tons of snails and hermits - and he wants nothing but what floats by - he is a smasher ( i see the piles of smashed stuff from the LR) he hasnt touched the 2 green gobies nor the purple firefish...
I am not saying DONT remove him - just make sure you dont remove him simply out of panic...
kk... ill shut up now...lol...

yiliyang · #9 10/03/2007, 09:49 AM

You tank seems really over stocked for a 20 gal.
The mantis is not as scary as people make it to be. Yours can probably coexist happily with your fishes. I keep a 3" wannarea in my 55gal mixed reef with all kinds of shrimps snails and corals and he has not killed anything. I feed it a small piece of squid or shrimp when I see him and he takes it with gusto. I would leave him in there.

just my opinion.

drtechno · #10 10/09/2007, 01:16 PM

Hi all..

Ya, pretty much the only real bio load of the tank is a 1" clown, 1" six line and 1.5" flame angel. The goby is tiny and the other critters (inverts) dont add too much bioload from what I've read.

Anyway, I may just do that.. try to trap him just so I can ID him, and then let him have free reign until I decide he is causing problems. The only problem is that I have only seen him once so far, and only for a couple seconds, so I'm worried I wont be able to keep an eye on his growth... That plus I've lost my emerlad crab which I'm not sure if its the mantis's doing or not...

Thanks for the help

DanInSD · #11 10/09/2007, 04:29 PM

20 gal is too small for the flame angel -- it gets at least four inches in length and needs more space than this. If the clown is a tomato, melanopus (cinnamon), or skunk, it will almost certainly get too big as well -- not to mention aggressive enough to kill just about anything in there. I had a tomato clown that drew blood. Needless to say it's gone. If it's a percula or false percula, they are much tamer and need less space.

As for the mantis, it's really your call. I would figure out where it lives and give it a chunk of food every few days. A well-fed mantis will get complacent and ignore all of the hard stuff like snails.

Dan