Reef Discussion

[Mantis Dundee]

Hi guys,
Seriously sad times at moment. I have come home to see my cleaner shrimp being munched on by my mantis shrimp. I have not seen my mantis for a couple of months up until now and gee wiz she has grown a lot. Unfortunatley I feel responsible as my cleaner took off to a different location from his usual cleaning station last night, when I re arranged some rocks to make way for new corals.

I know the rock she is in. Unfortunatley it is my centre piece large rock which all the rest of my very delicately aquascaped castle branches and leans off. Further to this I have morphs, acro and torch corals glued in nice spots on this rock. How the hell do I rid this devil from my tank. Way back in the beginning when my tank was not so full of corals etc, I had tried flushing this rock out with a hose with high pressure and I know she was in there at the time, but nothing. I have tried the trap before, with a fishing bait prawn in there. Nothing except for a stinky rotting prawn.
I feel like the only option I have is to pull this rock out and smash it on the ground to pieces till it shows. But that will mean removing all my coral. from that rock, destroying my awesome aqua scape, which will no longer be possible with this rock smashed. It really does not seem worth it. Considering I don't seem to loose any fish. It usually annoys me by destroying nice zoa frags etc more than eating fish.

Does anybody have any suggestions for best bait inside trap????? Maybe some other sort of shrimp that's alive and cheap would be more worth while.

I am devastated. I cant believe how big this monster has gotten in couple of months. Further to this when im under my tank cabinet and looked at bottom of weir with torch there are baby ones running around inside the weir. One made its way into sump. Found it running around wool.

P.s. Leo, I know you will read this and I am really sorry. I know you will be disappointed.

 

[chimaera]

Man that is one expensive and beautiful snack.

If you haven't tried a trap I would do that before ripping your rock apart.

Under sad circumstances, but :welcome

 

[Mantis Dundee]

Its not the dollars that bother me. Its the loss of such a friendly character. Cleaned my hand, my lipstick tang and cleaner had an instant bond aswell. :-(

Have tried trap. No success. What bait would you recommend?

 

[TheJordans]

So sorry to hear that :-( I don't have any experience or advice, but as Chimaera said, welcome ;-)

 

[chimaera]

Its not the dollars that bother me. Its the loss of such a friendly character. Cleaned my hand, my lipstick tang and cleaner had an instant bond aswell. :-(

Have tried trap. No success. What bait would you recommend?

I'd have thought any seafood mix type bait - piece of prawn, squid, mussel? Or a small silverside?

 

[Mantis Dundee]

I'd have thought any seafood mix type bait - piece of prawn, squid, mussel? Or a small silverside?

Yeh I have tried frozen bait prawns. I am going to persevere I think and just keep loading that trap for weeks, months however long it takes. I am thinking it would be better to put a live shrimp of some kind in there, as I know Mantis are very much a predator and a live one will be a hell of a lot more appetising than a dead one. Whats a cheap shrimp that would get its attention. Wonder how much those hingebeaks are worth? It sounds cruel but needs to be done.

 

[Mantis Dundee]

So sorry to hear that :-( I don't have any experience or advice, but as Chimaera said, welcome ;-)

Thanks for the welcomes guys. Hope this is a long better check in place than the alternative. I am jack of that place. :)

 

[TheJordans]

Lol!
I think that's how most of us ended up here- looking for a friendly alternative :-)

 

[aussieant32]

:welcome

Shame it happened mate, I count my stars I never had one!

Try catch it alive, plenty of people will take it off your hands

 

[Mantis Dundee]

:welcome

Shame it happened mate, I count my stars I never had one!

Try catch it alive, plenty of people will take it off your hands

They welcome to it. In fact if they can catch it without destroying my tank I will pay them handsomely. lol. It has a bounty on its head.

 

[Dr. Schell]

mantis shrimp are reltativley smart critters. The food that mine like best is shell-less, human-grade green prawn. You need to start target feeding the shrimp to get it accustome to the type of food. Once it is used to the food, you can then use this in the trap. May take a week to train, but generally works.

 

[Mantis Dundee]

mantis shrimp are reltativley smart critters. The food that mine like best is shell-less, human-grade green prawn. You need to start target feeding the shrimp to get it accustome to the type of food. Once it is used to the food, you can then use this in the trap. May take a week to train, but generally works.

Hmmm, interesting. How do you target feed it. Just place the prawn anywhere near the rock and hope it eats it over night. If not, should I discard it and try another fresh one the next day. Will my fish not try to eat it? What you say makes sense. Just not sure how to get it eating it considering I never see it.

Just had suggestion from a lfs to try a pippy. I wacked that in there. See how it goes for couple of days.

 

[Dr. Schell]

Hmmm, interesting. How do you target feed it. Just place the prawn anywhere near the rock and hope it eats it over night. If not, should I discard it and try another fresh one the next day. Will my fish not try to eat it? What you say makes sense. Just not sure how to get it eating it considering I never see it.

Just had suggestion from a lfs to try a pippy. I wacked that in there. See how it goes for couple of days.

if you have located the hole within which the mantis shrimp is living, place a small piece of the food just inside of the hole. The mantis shrimp will either accept it (take it in further) or reject it (toss it out of the hole). This will allow you to determine the suitability of the future 'bait'

Condition the animal to be feed at a particular time with a food type, then replace the food with a trap at the 'feeding time'

This is the best chance of success. Food should be 'fresh' and the mantis shrimp will generally reject food that has 'spoiled'

 

[Cosby]

@timbodavo What do you plan to do with the Mantis once you catch it?

 

[Miller]

I remember reading somewhere they are highly territorial and will attack and kill intruder mantis shrimp
So they recommend a mirror in the trap
They can't resist trying to pick a fight with the other mantis in its area
Might be an idea

 

[Scottrotton]

The only way I could get rid of my 2 mantis was to find there hole and just remove the rock, ive tried all sorts of traps, they come close the first time then they never went near one again.

 

[Gunners85]

Ive tried this method with crabs and it seems to work so it might work with a mantis.... If you know the hole in which the mantis is hiding, take that rock out and get a syringe and fill it up with soda water.. Squirt the soda water directly into the hole and the mantis will hate the bubbles and come straight out and hopefully into the bucket waiting below.. or have tweezers ready if he just pops hes head out a little bit and then grab him.. Best not to try harm him too much though, cos mantis' are pretty awesome..

 

[Mantis Dundee]

Thanks for all the input people. I cant believe how much better this site is just after my first blog. There was actually fair few other replies from others and myself that went missing when the site crashed the other day, but oh well it happens I guess.
Anyway, the serial killer has been removed. I came home yesterday to find my Flame Angel missing, I found a tiny remain of it wedged into a hole of the same rock which I had found the remains of my Redline Cleaner, and couple of months ago Sweetlips Clown. I then looked closer with a torch and could see the frills underneath the mantis fanning through a hole behind the remains of Flame Angel. I quickly removed my Acro, Morphs and torches which were glued to rock, all surrounding rocks and ripped the rock out as soon as I could and into a bucket. I had 10 litres of soda water ready to go, but guess what, the killer just jumped straight out of the rock into the bottom of the bucket. I could not believe after all the lengths I had gone to over the last 12 months since I started the hobby to rid this guy that it just jumped out this time. Unbelievable!
I rang my LFS and they said they would take him and if could not do anything with him feed him to something. I was so excited at the thought of seeing this killer be shown his real place in the food chain that I raced down there to see him be eaten whilst I remembered all my fallen ones. They refused once they saw him though because they liked his colours so much and he wanted him. I told them if I cant see him be eaten I want something out of it, and demanded some free NSW in exchange hahahah. They had another one there about twice the size but not as colourful. They decided for my sake so I could witness a Mantis being put in its place, to feed that one to a Dogface Puffer. :-) I know some of you wont agree with this. But hey I don't agree with them killing 3 of my fine specimens, so why should they be immune to the same fate by another predator. Anyway was cool to watch. We all stood around and had a good chuckle as the Dogface devoured it.
Just for the record, I had tried fresh water dip in the beginning, tried bottle traps, the crab traps, target feeding with fresh green prawns. Nothing worked. In the end just a little lucky that he popped out of rock this time. Although it was probably the Mantis's increasing hide, confidence and appetite that was his fate as in the end it showed me his definite location.
Cheers all!;)

 

[Gunners85]

Haha they're pretty intelligent... He knew the soda water was coming :p

 

[MichelleShocked]

Yeh I have tried frozen bait prawns. I am going to persevere I think and just keep loading that trap for weeks, months however long it takes. I am thinking it would be better to put a live shrimp of some kind in there, as I know Mantis are very much a predator and a live one will be a hell of a lot more appetising than a dead one. Whats a cheap shrimp that would get its attention. Wonder how much those hingebeaks are worth? It sounds cruel but needs to be done.

I used to feed my mantis live Cherry Shrimp - they survive for about an hour in the salt water, which surprised me. My mantis used to come out and catch them. I also taught him to take food from a skewer. He would fly out and attack the skewer until the food came off then he'd carry it off to his lair to eat. Mine was a smasher and therefore not any danger to fish.