Reef Discussion
@dr_schell hey bud, here I am Sunday. I have ripped down half side of tank. Have been shaking banging rock, fresh water, soda water. So far nothing but a pistol and a crab. Obviously a lot crap happening to my water so I am a little worried on impact of fish and corals but see how we go. Few questions.
*If I leave rock out of water? How many days you reckon before I could safely say the Mantis inside is dead? (Assuming it in there but wont come out)
*Is Prime reef and invert safe?
*And it is of my opinion that a single pistol shrimp could never make the same rapid multiple clicks within a split second? So quickly that they are nearly over lapping each other. You know what I mean?
*Also I am finding inside some tunnel bores I suspected were of mantis these black shells. They look kind of like Mussels. They seem to be empty. Any ideas?
*If I leave rock out of water? How many days you reckon before I could safely say the Mantis inside is dead? (Assuming it in there but wont come out)
*Is Prime reef and invert safe?
*And it is of my opinion that a single pistol shrimp could never make the same rapid multiple clicks within a split second? So quickly that they are nearly over lapping each other. You know what I mean?
*Also I am finding inside some tunnel bores I suspected were of mantis these black shells. They look kind of like Mussels. They seem to be empty. Any ideas?
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Can they fire as rapidly though. You know that between 2-5 clicks almost over lapping each other within a split second? I have not seen this in any videos oof pistols. As they have re-cock their claw ready to fir again, where the mantis can strike those clubs repeatedly within milli seconds of each othere. Please correct me if I am wrong. I would love to be wrong lol.
yes they can! can re-load within seconds, depending on species. Given that you have located and extracted a pistol shrimp and cannot see signs of a mantis (the animal), it is likely that you have already removed the creator of the noise. The 'mantis damage' is likely to have been caused by the mantis that had already been extracted.
Manits, just like pistol shrimp, require time to 're-fire'!
Manits, just like pistol shrimp, require time to 're-fire'!
Yeh true, to be honest it looked really fresh, when I think about. Well I have just spent 8 hours. I dismantled my complete tank. Smashed some rock, fresh water dips, poured some soda water through holes, blasted hose with nozzle full pressure through some holes, soda water dip. Came up with one pistol shrimp (dead), few fairly decent sized crabs, and a peppermint shrimp which I quickly whisked back into the tank. Lol. If I hear a Mantis still in there, well it can bloody well stay there hahaha.
I did consider leaving all my rock outside for a week to make sure anything could not possibly survive, but I could just not tolerate looking at a bare tank, with fish, corals and co scape. Looked like an LFS. So I decided I had done enough. Put all my rocks back in, re-scaped, now with much more room for my Tangs to swim and my generally much higher stock of fish and corals to when I last scaped. Done 25% water change, dosed some prime and watch how it goes over following days.
All in all, if I still have a Mantis so be it, it can stay! If it eats my Redline I will just give up on nice shrimp for this tank. I am happy with my new scape, so if I here that click click click, I will just be grateful with my new scape. As long as it does not start smashing frags for fun again. That is what that one previously removed did before it started eating my live stock. So annoying. Crazy rare zoa frags demolished. Could not put anything new and small on the substrate.
Thanks for all the advice and support everyone!!!!!:worship
You poor bugger. Well if it makes you feel any better, I still have another mantis in there somewhere. A couple of weeks later I was sitting there relaxing when I was rudely interrupted by the dreaded click click click click. This after I went and bought a new cleaner shrimp. Now it is very active again. My cleaner still ok though.
If you want that mantis out your best bet is to manually remove the rock when you are 100% sure it is in there on removal. Try the soft approaches first. Shaking rock, bot of fresh water, and then move to soda water. If it still does not come out you will have to either smash rock to pieces or leave the rock out for a week or so till it either comes out or dies in rock. You have to understand that some people get lucky with the soft approach bit many of us don't and you may need to make tough choices. They are like a cockroach when it comes to surviving less than ideal conditions, the ultimate survivor.
Good luck and keep me posted.
P.s nearly a month later now and I am seeing heaps of copepods running around my sump wool, bristle stars and all sorts of stuff survived being submerged in soda water and left out in sun for several hours. And I tore down my whole rock work and done all this to every piece. So I guess it good to know that a lot of good stuff can still survive. Having said this explains how a mantis also survived.
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