Grrrr!!! More clicking....

[MelanieF]

I'm about to have people in white coats come and take me away...

So far I've taken 2 mantis shrimps out of the live rock in my tank. Took 1 out of the rock when some of it was in a 20 gallon 6 months ago. Took the other one out of my 72 gallon this week after it proceeded to demolish a Purple Star I just bought.

I just heard clicking again. We have thousands of crickets in our house year round for our lizards but that racket is like a tranquil breeze compared to this damned clicking. Both times I've taken one out there's no clicking for days giving me false hope that they're finally gone. he he They like to play mind games I guess.

I don't think a trap would work as I have a cleaner shrimp, snails, crabs and fish and I'm sure they'd be after the food in it before the stupid mantis.

There's no way I can figure out what rock it is in and I don't want to take a hammer to all of it.

Question is this. What other options do I have? Some kind of fish?

Current tank inhabitants are softies, a moon coral, xenia, candy coral, the inverts listed above, 1 small yellow tang, 1 neon cleaner goby, 1 firefish, and 3 small yellowtail damsels.

Thank in advance for any suggestions!

 

[cdeakle]

Where did you get your LR from and what kind of LR is it?

 

[reefNewbie]

if its like mine, gulf-view rock, I had 4 mantis in mine. ;( still have one bastard in there.

 

[MelanieF]

About 3 different Local fish stores. The 20 lbs I got from Petworld is of unknown origin. The 34 lbs I got from PetMart (not Petsmart) was from Fiji I believe and the rest was from Caribbean Forest and was Premium Fiji rock.

reefNewbie, How did you get those out? Did you get them out before they went in your tank? I probably should've tried that but didn't know they were there and wanted the least amount of die-off possible. he, he If I ever need more for a bigger tank maybe I'll bake it first. Just kidding...

 

[reefNewbie]

i watched to see which rock it was in, grabed the rock and through it in sump. lured out mantis with food and then put rock back in main tank.

 

[hillbilly]

In the future, if you give live rock a high salinity dip first, the little bastards will come out before they have a chance to shack up in your tank.

 

[melanotaenia1]

I believe they can be spotted at night with the aid of a red flashlight, the beam has to be red in color.

Got mine in the curing tank before it went in display, guess I got lucky, and I had a bunch of different kinds of rock, so I think it really doesn't matter where the rock comes from.

 

[FranklinP]

Why are they so bad in a tank?

 

[Anonymous]

They are highly intelligent (seriously), very aggressive and always hungry. Keep your fingers away from it as well.

reefNewbie has the easiest and most practical idea. If you don't have a sump just fill a bucket with salty water and do it in that.

 

[silly34]

What do these things eat? I am thinking about setting up a refuge to tie into my sump and figured I could put all the neat critters in. I have 3 small urchins in the sump at the moment w/ some old rock.

B.

 

[Anonymous]

Hwarang is right, they are very intelligent and have some of the most advanced optical acuiteis of any organism on earth.
The variety found most often in live rock are the "smasher" variety, of which there are varius species Hemsiquilla, Gonodactylus, etc. They eat snails, crabs, fish, shrimp, etc. Fish are not normaly on the menue, and their threat level in a reef is overstated. You WILL lose shrimp, crabs, and even snails if the mantis get's big enough. The propensity to attack fish varies with the species, but the "spearer" varieties speacialize in this.
They make facinating pets too. I had a Gonodactylus platysoma that was out and about all the time. He would just sit there and watch me work. The most attractive species is O. scylarus, and they make good pets too although they are a bit more secretive.
Check this page out.
http://blueboard.rimlife.com/mantis/

Jim

 

[silly34]

Will mantis hurt sea urchins??

B>

 

[Anonymous]

Smashers sure will, depending on size.

 

[Anonymous]

Here is a lengthy article all about mantis scrimps.

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004- ... /index.htm

 

[Anonymous]

Any update on this? I'd be interested to acquire your mantis.

 

[J.Howard]

If you can locate the rock it's hiding in, which really sucks if it's in the bottom at the back where Murphy always directs them to live, you can pour carbonated water or soda pop in the hole he's hanging in. That will drive them out. Heard it's as effective if not more than hypersaline dip. Are you sure it's another manits? Some pistol shrimp are pretty loud and arrive in rock just like a mantis. If it's same sound as before, well then....good luck.

 

[Apophis924]

you want to get rid of Mantis shrimp, just try to breed them. I notice things tend to act 180 degrees out of what we want. people trying to grow xenia can never do it. people trying to weed it out get over run by it. I can't grow green star polyps to save my life, But sps clams and frog spawn thrive in my tank and i run no skimmer. Go figure.