Reef Discussion

[Kharn]

Hello

Most of you if not all of you will never have to worry about this since the likely hood of getting a foot long spearing mantis hitchhiking into your tank is non existent...however perhaps you have considered wanting to keep one as a pet as I am doing, if so then there may come a time where you will reach the point I have, which is tank transfers. Obviously this is no mere fish that can just bet "netted".

One must remember that these are EXTREMELY intelligent creatures (as I have said before if they could speak english they would talk to there owners although that talking would be a LOT of profanity, they constantly threat/swear at each other when in each others presence). So by the time it comes for you to actually have to remove them from there old tank to there new tanks, the large mantis will REALLY know you.

Most large spearers are very stubborn and quite fearless, they will attack you if you get within there personal space although this attack is usually a defensive strike (they keep the pointy end of there claw closed and hit with there elbows creating a smasher type effect), this is to deter the would be annoyance if things get to uncomfortable it will bring its spears out.

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!!!YOU CANNOT PICK UP A LARGE SPEARING MANTIS WITH YOUR OWN HANDS!!!

1/ Your going to get hurt. (stabbed/sliced or at worst, all 28 teeth brake off into you...)

2/ Your going to hurt/kill the mantis shrimp. (Crush it/If its strike lands and you through natural reflex freak out and rip your hand out of the tank, your likely to rip its claws off).

3/ just don't do it....it has taken over 4months so far for my finger to heal from a 4inch smasher....imagine the damage a 12inch spearer could do...

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So how does one go about catching a large burrowing mantis in there tank ?

Well folks :D break out the horse and cowboy hat along with your six shooters cause we are heading back to the wild wild west days!
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LASOOS!

Thats rite, the things that cowboys would make out of rope then swing above there heads as they rode off towards there target screaming "YEEHAW!!".....As weird as this may sound this is not only the best option but its the safest for both the mantis and the one doing the catching.

A Lasoo is made out of relatively simple parts, I assume you are all aware of what "bread ties" are (the things that bakers use to wind around the plastic bag that holds our lovely bread). Basically the "rope" for the lasoo is just bread ties (don't remove the plastic protection around the wire) then a "frame" is made out of a much stronger steel something like a thick coat hanger perhaps, still flexible for a human to alter but not a mantis shrimp, as you can see from the picture provided (by Dr. Caldwell) it shows what he does for catching and studying large spearers in the wild, he specifically stated that, whilst in the field he just strips the bread tie down to the wire making it more risky in harming the mantis but the overall process smoother but in his lab he leaves the protection on and takes more time getting them out aka less stress and chance of harming the animal.

In this pic Dr. Caldwell is about to insert the noose into the spearers burrow, the process is rather simple. Place the noose above the mantis shrimps burrow as seen in the pic, then with another piece of solid steel (or anything thin and solid) you slowly push the noose deeper into the burrow about a good few inches, pushing down with the frame of the noose in one hand and pushing down with the solid steel (or anything thin and solid) on the actual noose so it is kind of level in the burrow, remove the solid steel (or anything thin and solid) that helped you push the noose down, the solid frame is fixed to the thin wire so it stays.

Now that the noose is inside the burrow the mantis within is likely checking it out and trying to figure out what has just invaded his home (expect strikes) it is at this point that one must use some form of "bait" like fish flesh or something similar to coax the mantis to the entrance and essentially thread itself into the noose, once it has essentially threaded itself enough (a good few inchs) its time to go for gold.

This is the tough part, you need to slowly tighten the noose by pulling on the wire running up the length of the frame, once the animal is snagged and realizes it, it will go into panic mode and start to freak out darting deeper into the burrow or attempting to, its at this point that you must hold on and only hold on, DO NOT ATTEMPT TO YANK IT FREE YOU WILL RIP IT IN HALF! mantis shrimps fatigue easily and after a few mins of it fighting to free itself, it will tire out, its at this point that you can slowly and gently pull it from the burrow, once it is out of the burrow, cover the burrow with something like eggcrate and a rock on top of something!

Release the noose so its free, it will still be really sluggish so it will be easy at this point to manipulate it into a container for transport ( I do not recommend nets they have so many spines etc its easy for it to get all tangled up and hence have something break off).

That is how you catch a large burrowing mantis!

I have yet to do this and I am quite scared (mostly for my spearers safety) because I do not want to hurt my spearers and if I were to "pull to hard" then I could easily rip the mantis in half, a mantis will not rip itself in half....so its best to let the animal fight itself to get free allowing it to exhaust itself and push its own limits as far as hurting itself goes.

I will film and photograph the whole process when I get the BAL** to do it :confused:

 

['vspec']

This is coming from the man that has interesting down times, so eyes forward and listen up people :)

 

[Agent M]

Wow, I understand why you are nervous. Pulling the wire tight would be the thing I would be most concerned about. Will be interesting to see the vid!

 

[Kharn]

Wow, I understand why you are nervous. Pulling the wire tight would be the thing I would be most concerned about. Will be interesting to see the vid!

This is why I plan on leaving the actual plastic stuff that is on the bread ties, on the wire (rather then peel it back like in the pic), hopefully it will be less of a chance of ripping the poor spearers in 2 but by doing this lasso/noose sort of thing, the mantis "SHOULD" come out of the burrow as if it were naturally coming out a.k.a. head first., specially after its struggled to free itself for a few mins.

 

[firebird]

Good luck-will really be interested in seeing this-glad it's you and not me though;)

 

[VaultBoy]

Good luck.... Scary prospect moving a giant predator!

 

[Agent M]

I'm wondering if you can use plastic - like from a whipper snipper, instead of the wire?

 

[Kharn]

I'm wondering if you can use plastic - like from a whipper snipper, instead of the wire?

Thats quite a good Idea however I am not sure if there is a particular reason why he recommends using (and uses himself) the fine wire I'll ask him about the whippa snippa stuff, I think it might be easier to manipulate (the wire) then the somewhat "springy" whippa snippa cable.

I do however plan on leaving the plastic around the wire on the wire (not peel it back like in the pic)

Good luck.... Scary prospect moving a giant predator!

Kinda feels like the opening scene from Jurrasic park where the guards are transporting the raptors :D (I don't plan on being that guard that got pulled into the cage!)

 

['vspec']

updates?

 

[Kharn]

I haven't done it yet as I am still really nervous and I don't NEED to do it rite now...I am sorta leaving this as late as possible because I can and because......IMMA SCARED! :confused:

These are no mere goldfish....

(mostly for the safety and well being of the large spearers, I can easily forsee myself just ripping one in half by accident.... I want to make sure I give the stomatopods the best chance at surviving the ordeal).

 

['vspec']

Insurance for your fingers has an embargo, admit it..lol

 

[Kharn]

Insurance for your fingers has an embargo, admit it..lol

Honestly I do not plan on having any of my fingers near the stomatopods I am mostly in fear of killing the poor things ='[ since this is a very delicate task for what can essentially be a decapitation tool if not done correctly...and these sort of species aren't exactly found in pet stores or commonly sought after in the hobby so getting another again can take months...(I have an order in still with a different collector which has been standing since October last year).

I have considered something else as of late which may.....be possible for at least Morgoth since he is proving to be somewhat of a relentless and ruthless predator, when I feed him on the stick these days, he launches rite out of his burrow in a flurry of sand and fury LOL its quite intimidating and my latest video shows it (he looks confused in choice between the Humbug scared to death vs the prawn meat on the skewer). Point is there is a moment where I COULD perhaps close his entrance over swiftly with a large piece of egg crate made into an "L" shape, so once he comes out he can't get back in.

 

[firebird]

I would be scared too!

 

['vspec']

Assuming you can train it to chase its food in other ways, my non lethal approach to the subject would be to build an acrylic box trap and lure him in that way.
I spent 10min scribbling and have some specs on building a box for this purpose long term.
Happy to bounce some ideas if you decide to go that route instead.

 

[Kharn]

He won't come out that far from the safety of his burrow but he certainly comes out much further then Leviathan (I have never seen Leviathan completely since the day I got him). Be interesting to see your specs anyway as all options are possible, its all for the sake of the safety of the mantis.

The spearers have much better eye sight then the smashers and all stomatopods already break world records for eye sight even the smashers so it makes you wonder how much more effective the spearers are where I am going with this is that because the spearers eyes are so much more beneficial and because spearers are much more docile then smashers it is possible to hand feed a spearer without causing injury to yourself, this is something I really want to try.

There eyesight (capable of honing in on the target to a level I can't describe in detail...) mixed with there intelligence (being able to literally understand what is going on, who I am and what I mean to the stomatopods survival) will inevitably allow me to hand feed the animals basically....they know I am essentially there god what harm comes to me could wash over onto them, its a relationship that they form in the wild with other animals part of the "food chain". Large spearers have been known to have lots of little shrimp running about them and over them most of the time people ASSUMED they were cleaning the mantis and hence the mantis tolerated it, this is more false then true, stomatopods for the better part have so many appendages to clean itself that it needs no help and is virtually always clean soo... why does it tolerate shrimp that would make an easy snack ?

Quite simply...BAIT the stomatopod KNOWS through sheer intelligence that those little shrimp are just GOLD for passing fish (which can't see the well concealed stomatopod) so the stomatopod "herds/farms" these little shrimp, the shrimp get left overs from the stomatopods catchings whilst the stomatopod uses the little shrimp as bait and hence essentially "guards" them, its a very similar situation to what I am experiencing.

They won't harm me eventually (like they don't harm the tiny shrimp crowding them in the wild) because they know I provide food (so do the little shrimp attract big fish) to attack either me or the little shrimp denies possibilities of much larger feedings.