Hellboy (let's hope it's a boy) has a new home!! My wife named the Mantis I caught in my nano at home. The tank was set up simultaneously with another nano at my office about a month ago. Well, about a week ago we began hearing the all famous clicking noise from the home nano. While feeding the 2 maroon clowns last Saturday I noticed two eyes looking out of the rockwork as the brine floated by...
Moving around the tank slowly I noticed the little guy. He was really eager to jump out at some of the food but I think my large clown noticed him at the same time and made a strike against the mantis - my wife and I looked at each other in awe as the clown then went nuts! He began circling this one rock rapidly, lowering himself into the substrate and slinging it everywhere and finally attacking the mantis' hole again!!
The clown stopped after a minute or so and then the mantis promptly took rubble inside from inside its liar and blockaded the door shut! It was craziness. At this point I knew it was time to get the mantis out – I’ve always wanted one anyway. I read on the forums here and decided to try the coke bottle dyi trap. I set it up Saturday night but no luck. Yesterday I came to the conclusion that the coke bottle was just too big for the nano so I took an old Nyquil bottle, cleaned it out with super hot water and cut it up (see pics).
I set the trap and used a twig from the yard to tap open the door to his hole. Let me be the first to say I’m glad it was a twig and not my finger because the minute I opened the door the mantis struck the twig and took the end off!! I left him alone and watched the hole. He stuck his head out about a minute later to investigate the trap. He continued this for a few minutes but would never leave the hole (probably because of the clown encounter). So I went to plan B, heated up some water and used a turkey baster to shoot a little in the hole. He came out of that hole faster than an Indy car on a straight away and right into the trap! So down he went to his new home – an old 3 gal. He seems to be acclimating we and was already hard at work destroying the rock to make his new home.
Moving around the tank slowly I noticed the little guy. He was really eager to jump out at some of the food but I think my large clown noticed him at the same time and made a strike against the mantis - my wife and I looked at each other in awe as the clown then went nuts! He began circling this one rock rapidly, lowering himself into the substrate and slinging it everywhere and finally attacking the mantis' hole again!!
The clown stopped after a minute or so and then the mantis promptly took rubble inside from inside its liar and blockaded the door shut! It was craziness. At this point I knew it was time to get the mantis out – I’ve always wanted one anyway. I read on the forums here and decided to try the coke bottle dyi trap. I set it up Saturday night but no luck. Yesterday I came to the conclusion that the coke bottle was just too big for the nano so I took an old Nyquil bottle, cleaned it out with super hot water and cut it up (see pics).
I set the trap and used a twig from the yard to tap open the door to his hole. Let me be the first to say I’m glad it was a twig and not my finger because the minute I opened the door the mantis struck the twig and took the end off!! I left him alone and watched the hole. He stuck his head out about a minute later to investigate the trap. He continued this for a few minutes but would never leave the hole (probably because of the clown encounter). So I went to plan B, heated up some water and used a turkey baster to shoot a little in the hole. He came out of that hole faster than an Indy car on a straight away and right into the trap! So down he went to his new home – an old 3 gal. He seems to be acclimating we and was already hard at work destroying the rock to make his new home.
