ACKK!!!! mantis got loose!!!!

[goldenboy]

I recently got a 1" navy blue mantis shrimp from another hobbyist. I put it in one of those plasic critter keepers and placed it in my sump for the time being until the 5 gal tank for him finished its cycle. Well anyway it somehow managed to squeaze out of the critter keeper get into my sump, crawl into my main pump, avoid being minced by the impeler, went up the return pipes and into my reef. what do you all use to catch such a small mantis?

 

[saltcritter]

8O

Well!,
the way I heard it you dose the Aquarium with!!! SALT!

Bring that tank up to abou 1.029-1.030-31 and it will run for the hills within hours.

Then scoop that bugger out when it panics, and start your removal of water untill fresh brings it back to normal range.

I had a friend who did that and it works in hours and you have to stay allert and with all the friends you have looking for that guy.
When you see it, chase it, moveing the rocks around to scare it and finally it will make a run for a corner or top or in a hole in a rock and then you JUMP!! on it with quick speed.

My friend said he has done this a few times and it worked every time, without major distruption to the whole system.

NOT advised on 200+gallon tanks and certain touchy corals, take the corals out of tank for a while when salting.

GOOD LUCK and GO get that sucker. :wink:

By the way, he had turned off his BIO units and hand watered the bio for a short time while waiting the little bugger out. :evil:

OK, all NAY sayers jump right in, your turn. :roll:

 

[goldenboy]

Uhg!!! That sounds like a real pain in the neck. I don't think that I can get my more sensitive stuff out out the tank like that. I know that my new ultra crocea is anchored pretty good same goes with my rose E. quad.
I appreciate the help SC, I think I'll use that as a last resort.

Anybody else have a suggestion.

 

[O P Ing]

hi.
Same thing happened to me (I wish I read you post when I got that mantis..., but it is too late)! It killed all the fishes in my tank except for the mandrain fish, so it is the only vertabrate in my tank for about a year. Mantis is coral safe (IME), so if you don't have any fish, it should be fine.

Try to use trap with bait. Some people reported that it work quit well. If you salt the tank like SC said, all the other inverts will be trying to jump out of your tank, including the worms, corals, clams, and shrimps. Do don't do it unless you have a very small, sterile tank....
bye -ck-

 

[Anonymous]

After chasing the mantis that came with my first batch of live rock for three weeks, I finally just isolated the rock it was in and pulled it out. I dumped half a liter of seltzer water over th rock and he came shooting out. The rock went back into my tank, and the mantis was dumped into his 4 gal 'Love Hut'

The mantis trap never worked for me, so that's why I did it the way I did.
Here is a pic of his new home. (the 4 gal sprung a leak)

Brett

 

[goldenboy]

The only problem with taking the rock out of the tank is that he chose to use the largest rock in my tank for his new home. The rock takes up about 1/3 of the length of my 40 gal reef and weighs about 35 lbs. But I think that I might try it anyway.