Help!! Mantis Shrimp

reefiness

reefiness

Active Member
i found a mantis shrimp in my tank the other day and its about 2 inches long. hasnt gotten to any of my fish yet but i want to get him out. any one have any suggestions. ive had the bottle trap in the tank for about 3 days and nothings happened yet except i caught 2 peppermints and a lawnmower blenny...
. i see the mantis shrimp almost every day and he still doesnt look like he can harm much plus he sleeps in the same cave as my blenny and havnt had a problem. So can some one give me some advice.....
 
sw65galma

sw65galma

Active Member
Take the rock he is in and put it in a bucket. Wait till he comes out and take the rock out...
Then sell him to someone who wants him....They are like any other aggressive fish...you wouldn't kill a trigger if you got one in your LR...I keep a mantis, he is awsome!
 
jonnywater

jonnywater

Member
SLAP IT!!!! Just kidding. Those things can break bones. They make a HUGE amount of aftermarket traps that you can buy. I dont know if I would go playing with the rock though if you have never delt with one. I might even find someone that you can pay to get the thing out.
 
reefiness

reefiness

Active Member
it looks like a blue or black color but im not sure havent really seen him in detail because he moves so fast
ive tried to put it in a bucket of fresh water because i heard they would come out but it didnt...
 
sw65galma

sw65galma

Active Member
Originally Posted by reefiness
it looks like a blue or black color but im not sure havent really seen him in detail because he moves so fast
ive tried to put it in a bucket of fresh water because i heard they would come out but it didnt...
Best way is if you have a long bucket.... put the rock on one end and put some shrimp a good distance away..
If you just have a 5 gal round bucket, use your bottle trap the manits will eventually get hungry and go for it.
 
fwildthing

fwildthing

Member
had one of those come in on some premium live rock back in 95....... here's the scenario. I had my wife stand alert beside the bathroom sink with the net....while I took the piece of liverock out that he called home and ran it under the sink. the mantis dropped out of his hole, my wife freaked out (the woman who was terrified of spiders) and screamed as she abandoned her post, dropped the net and ran out the front door....into the neighbors yard. currently was holding a rather large piece of liverock, looking at the puzzled mantis at the drain wondering how I was going to coerce this beast into either the drain or the net, that now was in the dining room on the barstool. he chose the drain and the rest is history....
my suggestion is.... do NOT have your wife help you. find his home and take him and it to a LFS and trade him in.......there are actually people out there who like these things.
 
reefiness

reefiness

Active Member
im sure its a mantis shrimp i had a good enough look to see ti was a mantis but i just dont know if its a slasher or smasher.
Im trying to put it in fresh water again. I have the rock that i think he is in and its been in a bucket of fresh water for over 1 hour. would he have died yt because of no salt or could he stil be in there because i havent seen him come out yet and there is shrimp in the container
 
amandal

amandal

Member
You people make me want to cry! Serioulsy. Down the drain?!? :mad: Death by freshwater? :help: I'm tempted to mail a couple of my mantis shrimp your way to thwack some skulls.

Do you know where your live rock came from? This would help tremendously in identifying the likely species.
 
reefiness

reefiness

Active Member
my LR come from both fiji and the caribbean islands. and i recently got a piece of coral from the LFS and im not sure what type that is. so the only locations i can give you are Fiji and the Caribbean Islands.
 
sea_squirt

sea_squirt

New Member
After reading this thread...I think I just figured out what this hitchiker is on one of my small peices of LR...I placed it in front of the tank so I could watch it...the only time it comes out of it's hole is when I spot feed it a small peice of shrimp (yes...I have been spot feeding it....) Nothing is missing, I havent heard any snapping noises and it looks to be black in color with small white specks on it's antana...but definitely a mantis shrimp. Its only about maybe a inch long....Not sure if I should keep it or not now, after reading up on them.... :notsure:
 
toughguy80

toughguy80

Member
If they are well fed theres a decent chance they won't try attacking your fish unless provoked. Just like any aggressive fish, if they are fed well there's no reason for them to waste energy trying to catch something when it's just handed to them.
Wildthing, that's a hilarious story! Had the same thing happen with a sally light foot and my girlfriend. I was moving it from one tank to another, it actually hopped out of the net onto the floor and started scurring away from me. As fate would have it, it ran right towards my girlfriend. I told her to grab it and she simple yiped and ran on top of my bed lol
Luckily I got him and put it in the tank with no problems.
 
sw65galma

sw65galma

Active Member
Originally Posted by reefiness
im sure its a mantis shrimp i had a good enough look to see ti was a mantis but i just dont know if its a slasher or smasher.
Im trying to put it in fresh water again. I have the rock that i think he is in and its been in a bucket of fresh water for over 1 hour. would he have died yt because of no salt or could he stil be in there because i havent seen him come out yet and there is shrimp in the container
Ya i did say to put it in a bucket of SW...not FW...it'll never comeout that way...
 
reefiness

reefiness

Active Member
well i finally got the mantis out and i didnt kill it. i weas able to get him out of the rock using fresh water then i quickly moved it to a 1/2 gallon beta bowl were it will stay until i can find it a home.
He is a really kool looking shrimp let me tell you. Well first off its a smasher and it has green on the bottom half of his front legs and has a sort of dark navy blue color
 
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