Found my first mantis

[rlm2005]

Last night I was feeding my tank when I noticed something small, elongated darting out from under a rock. It was really fast. It came out several more times grabbing food and I could tell it was a mantis. It's maybe 2 inches long, reddish colored. I would take a picture but like I said it's fast. Now, this has solved some mysteries about this tank. I've noticed quite a few snail shells and the 3 sexy shrimp I had in there disappeared almost immediately. I assumed I had a rogue crab.

My questions: Are my fish safe? I have a pair of percs and a royal gramma. I also have a coral banded shrimp. I don't want to remove it, if it will co habitate in this tank. Otherwise I guess I could set up a small 10 gallon for it in my office. Any thoughts?

[G.SMITHII]

well, the smashers are a lil less prone to kill fish, but no garuntees.

if the shells are broken, id bet on a smasher.

hope for clubs and not spears...

then hope its just about all grown up, a good identification from roy's list will help you get better pointers

good luck!

[Pea-brain]

Depends. If you are not super attached to the fish you could try it. 2 inches is about where I would start to worry about tank inhabitants. With any luck some frozen shrimp will keep it off your fish and some of your cleanup crew. Expect to lose the cleaner shrimps though. If it hurts or kill a fish I would remove it ASAP. If you are super attached to your fish (keep in mind clownfish are just damsels with cool colors and a movie based on them that makes me cringe everytime I hear an adult say the name of a chacter from it in a fish store) then I would remove the mantis and put it in the ten gallon with some sand and LR. Mantis office tanks are cool. Just make sure it has a heater and heavy chemicals stay away from it. they are sensitive.

[rlm2005]

Thanks for the quick replies. Yes, I am attached to the clowns, they were my first salt water fish. So I guess Mr Mantis will have to go. I have my 24 gallon nanocube with only rock in it right now. I am getting ready to put a bigger tank there so maybe I will put him in there for now. I'm assuming the bottle trick is the first thing I should try? Oh and the shells aren't smashed, just empty. I also don't seem to have any hermits left in there either. I had at least a dozen of them. Thanks for the help.

[justinl]

odd that the shells arent smashed open. its not unheard of mantids just pulling hermits out of the shell though, just rare.

i highly doubt any of your fish are in any danger, but i wont guarantee anything. keep it fed and the fish will likely be left alone. cleaner shrimp are probably gonna get killed.

yeah bottle trap is the first thing to try.

[rlm2005]

I got a little curious about this guy so I decided to throw in some pellets to see if I could get a good look at him. He is only about 1 1/2 inches long and kinda skinny. Definately a mantis from the pics that I have looked at. I can clearly see his burrow. There are several empty snail shells right in front of it but they are not smashed. A few of my hermit shells do have holes in them, though. This tank has been set up for 2 years. I haven't added anything to it in months. I changed the rock around a couple of months ago, maybe his burrow was in the back of the tank and I could never see him. I will still try to trap him so I can get a picture for id.

New question, are there smaller species of mantis? How quickly do they grow? It's been at least six months since any type of live rock or coral was introduced to that tank.

[Pea-brain]

Don't expect him to grow too big. Probably not much bigger than 3".

[justinl]

there are literally hundreds of mantis species. thankfully the ones that we see are limited to maybe 40 or so (very rough estimate). some get huge some get small. mostly small. and most hitchers stay small as well.

mantids can be very reclusive and remain undetected for a long time. im not terribly surprised.

most of the time, mantids dont grow very fast. you have plenty of time before he can pose any real threat to stuff other than CUC.

[rlm2005]

I caught him. I put the bottle trap in, left the room for 1/2 hour came back, and he was in there. I'll see if I can get a good picture of it. Thanks everyone.

[rlm2005]

I just uploaded the picture of him into my gallery. Can anyone id this guy?

[Pea-brain]

can you get a good look at the meral spots? (a indented spot on the inside of each of the "arms" that is usually colored differently) My initial guess was N. wennerae, but the telson doesn't look right 9to me) so I am guessing it would be a smithii or mybe another small smasher like G. glabrous, G. falcatus, or G. graphuras. Just guessing, of course...

[KhawMengLee]

Can you take a closer picture?

[rlm2005]

I'll try and find my other camera with the macro settings. He was getting stressed in the container so I put him into my empty 24 gal. I was using it as a holding tank for some live rock. Right now he has a big tank all to himself. Thanks for all your help.

[Ms. K]

Nemo! Dory! Nemo! Dory! Sorry, couldn't resist! Well, since you've already got him in a tank all to himself, I'd start setting that up for him. Like the others said, a smasher is less likely to kill fish than a spearer, but they're like other animals (and most kids for that matter...lol). If the opportunity presents itself, you just can't be 100% certain what they'll do.

[rlm2005]

Originally posted by Ms. K
Nemo! Dory! Nemo! Dory! Sorry, couldn't resist! Well, since you've already got him in a tank all to himself, I'd start setting that up for him. Like the others said, a smasher is less likely to kill fish than a spearer, but they're like other animals (and most kids for that matter...lol). If the opportunity presents itself, you just can't be 100% certain what they'll do.

BTW my clowns are Gary and Sandy (my kids are big Spongebob fans) I'm going to pick up a smaller tank for him but he's fine for right now. I still can't believe how quickly I caught him.