Reef Discussion
OH NOOOOO!!!!!!!!!! Guess what, bought myself a nice new Redline this afternoon. Within 1 hour or so of him in tank. I heard that notorious click, click, click!!!!!!!
I have another Mantis in there still. I hate these evil things. For heavens sake leave me and my aquarium alone. How the hell will I locate it. The only way I was able to locate the other one was by watching it eat a few hundred dollars worth of my pets for snacks. I do not want to wait for same thing to start happening again just to locate it.
AAaaaarrgghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have another Mantis in there still. I hate these evil things. For heavens sake leave me and my aquarium alone. How the hell will I locate it. The only way I was able to locate the other one was by watching it eat a few hundred dollars worth of my pets for snacks. I do not want to wait for same thing to start happening again just to locate it.
AAaaaarrgghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!
Do you have snails in there, @timbodavo?? We have Trochus and Turbos and they make A LOT of clicking noises by rubbing their shells against rocks and shaking against the glass ;)
Just a thought!
Just a thought!
i do have alot of snails, i wish it was them.
@timbodavo, I do feel your pain regarding the loss of the fish in your tank and I do see where you are coming from related to you wanting to see a mantis shrimp 'put in its place in the food chain'. However, I think that its behaviour in your tank indicates where it's place is!
It is rather unfortunate that you wanted to see this animal killed for it displaying natural behaviours. Given the fact that 'smasher' mantis shrimp preferentially feed on invertebrates I suspect that these would have been the first animals to go. Generally, only when given no other alternative, would it have taken to your fish. It was stated that it was in there for 12 months. This would have given you ample time to remove the fish to a 'safe' area while you extracted the mantis/searched the live rock. This would have saved the life of the lost aquarium inhabitants.
I am not one to cast judgement, and that is not the intent of this post. I just think that it should be stated that seeing any animal die unnecessarily for displaying natural behaviour is not only sad, but reflect a poor call in judgement. Particularly when there are many hobbyists out there (many on this forum alone) that are more than willing to devote a tank to properly cater for an animal such as a mantis shrimp. These creatures truly are amazing, and when provided the correct environment, are rewarding pets to keep.
That is my 2c worth!
KARMA!OH NOOOOO!!!!!!!!!! Guess what, bought myself a nice new Redline this afternoon. Within 1 hour or so of him in tank. I heard that notorious click, click, click!!!!!!!
I have another Mantis in there still. I hate these evil things. For heavens sake leave me and my aquarium alone. How the hell will I locate it. The only way I was able to locate the other one was by watching it eat a few hundred dollars worth of my pets for snacks. I do not want to wait for same thing to start happening again just to locate it.
AAaaaarrgghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!
Get all the animals out, tear down your rockwork and locate it. :Look in all the holes! Could just be a pistol shrimp, the sound is almost identical!OH NOOOOO!!!!!!!!!! Guess what, bought myself a nice new Redline this afternoon. Within 1 hour or so of him in tank. I heard that notorious click, click, click!!!!!!!
I have another Mantis in there still. I hate these evil things. For heavens sake leave me and my aquarium alone. How the hell will I locate it. The only way I was able to locate the other one was by watching it eat a few hundred dollars worth of my pets for snacks. I do not want to wait for same thing to start happening again just to locate it.
AAaaaarrgghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!
I shared the same optimism as you. For the 1st few months I obsessed researching, and trying to find and remove the Mantis to the point where it was seriously not good for my health. I agreed on my wife's recommendation that we not worry about it until, in your exact words "I start seeing death". Next 9 months were fine, kept clicking away but no deaths, not even any of my many snails. Then all of a sudden after about another 9 months I lost 3 of my pets within a very short period. I had spotted the Mantis a couple of times. Think leading up until then it must have been feeding off my pistols as I did have several. I used to hear the single clicks and spot couple of them here and there. Then there was no more sighting and no more single clicks. Just rapid double and triple clicks. These clicks I'm talking about can be heard from one end of the house to the other at times. There is no mistaking it.
I do appreciate your calm input though, as I do need chilling out sometimes. If you were to hear it, I think you would say "Ohhh, that, yes that is a Mantis" Lol.
@dr_schell Congratulations! Did you heart my feelings????? Yes you did! You went about attacking my integrity and my inner core values as a human being, which I am my own harshest judge of my morals. I have extremely high expectations of myself (an actual personal problem of mine) and anyone close to me will vouch for that.
You went to a lot of effort to sugar coat it by saying you are not one to cast judgement, not the intent of this post etc etc. However you never would have felt the need to do this if you did not think it might possibly hurt my feelings. I see your argument but we are all individual and different, and sometimes it is best to just accept that and not go there. You say it's sad my little regard for my nightmare Mantis shrimp. Others might find it sad that you are more worried about the fate of a Mantis than a human beings feelings. I mean really bit of perspective here. I thought this site was going to be different.
That is my 2c worth!
However to be fair you have tried to help and continued to be constructive. So I am willing to shake hands, make up and agree to disagree if you are.
@dr_schell I did spend many hours of many days in the first few months of my tank trying to locate and remove the Mantis before I had much live stock. My biggest problem was then I was to worried about my valuable live rock I had just spent $500 on. I tried shaking the rocks, I tried freshwater dips, I tried blasting down suspect holes etc etc. I spent hours researching, watching with a torch, listening, looking, listening, looking over and over. Eventually I agreed with my wife that I would not worry about it until and if we started seeing any deaths. After all I also have a family and career to attend to as well as keeping my reef tank pristine.
Anyway I only have a little quarantine tank 40l aqua one all in one type setup. It is really only good for a sick fish or if I wanted to quarantine one before entering DT. It is no where near big enough for the amount of live stock I now have.
I suspect 1 of about 3 rocks that it is mostly taking refuge in, especially due to the bore holes through them and just where it sounds to be generally coming from the limited times it does click. I am thinking of removing them over the weekend and start with the shake, then the freshwater, then the hose and if still nothing then the soda water. Failing this I am considering removing all rock from tank every last piece and doing the same thing. Leaving all remaining live stock in the tank. Obviously I risk turning my entire 40kg of live rock into dead base rock, but I no longer care about that like I did in the beginning. My biggest concern I guess is whether I will still have enough beneficial bacteria in my 4l of matrix in sump as well as my substrate. I am thinking it should be ok.
I have done some pretty big disturbances to my rock and substrate before and Ammonia has never spiked past the 0.25 in the following day or so. I have just made sure I do 2 or 3 15% water changes over the next week. I' m also thinking if it did creep up, I could use Prime short term perhaps to keep livestock happy (fish plus corals)
Anyway I only have a little quarantine tank 40l aqua one all in one type setup. It is really only good for a sick fish or if I wanted to quarantine one before entering DT. It is no where near big enough for the amount of live stock I now have.
I suspect 1 of about 3 rocks that it is mostly taking refuge in, especially due to the bore holes through them and just where it sounds to be generally coming from the limited times it does click. I am thinking of removing them over the weekend and start with the shake, then the freshwater, then the hose and if still nothing then the soda water. Failing this I am considering removing all rock from tank every last piece and doing the same thing. Leaving all remaining live stock in the tank. Obviously I risk turning my entire 40kg of live rock into dead base rock, but I no longer care about that like I did in the beginning. My biggest concern I guess is whether I will still have enough beneficial bacteria in my 4l of matrix in sump as well as my substrate. I am thinking it should be ok.
I have done some pretty big disturbances to my rock and substrate before and Ammonia has never spiked past the 0.25 in the following day or so. I have just made sure I do 2 or 3 15% water changes over the next week. I' m also thinking if it did creep up, I could use Prime short term perhaps to keep livestock happy (fish plus corals)
Sounds like a plan. Best to sort the issue out now before it becomes a greater issue down the track. I do appreciate your frustration at these animals, but please be aware that they are animals and their behaviour is 'hard wired' and they do not intend cause us greif. They are doing what they naturally do. Please ensure that if you do locate this animal, it is re-homed. There are many, many people on this forum that would be more than willing to take, or is you requested, purchase a mantis shrimp from you. If I was down that way, I would volunteer to help extract it from your tank. Perhaps you may be able to get someone that lives close by to do so.
In terms of bacteria in your tank, it will have colonised EVERY surface in the system. There is liklely to be sufficiwent in the sand bed alone to ensutre that there are no MAJOR spikes in toxins in the short term. Keep your skimmer running wet and it will be all the better.
Fantastic Idear with the Prime, will take care of Amonia, Nitrite and Nitrate and will convert these compounds into a 'non-toxic' form.
Best of luck to you, I hope that you can rid your system.
Just as an aside, I have a Pistol Shrimp (ie Richards Pistol Shrimp) living in my large display tank. I have see this animal distroy a 'smasher' mantis shrimp within seconds. They apear to aim their 'pistol' claw at them, 'sound-off' which stuns the mantis, and they they instancly begin to dismsmber them. Perhaps you could introduce a pistol shrimp, but be warned, these are likley to feed on any other shrimp in the system, including cleaner shrimp!
Mate, don't worry if I catch this one alive I doubt my emotions will be pumping like they were when I caught the last serial killer. However if it dies in the process from soda water or something, so be it. Not that I plan on being reckless, but it just has to come out one way or another. I cant see anything killing it other than something bigger in the food chain though based on my previous efforts of removing. They seem to be like a cockroach. They adapt, survive and thrive under adversity hence why I failed to remove earlier in the hobby. Anyway if it comes out alive I'l advertise it for free.
I must admit I do love a pistol shrimp and would have loved to have seen that (no, not just to see a mantis be murdered) I just love there whole mechanism of the sonic boom and stun. Awesome stuff.
All dead base rock will eventually just become live rock again anyhow wont it. Maybe not all the organisms and stuff but it will still house plenty of that beneficial bacteria?
P.s. so far so good. My redline (named whiskas) still kicking. Please hold out to Sunday.
Mantis shrimp are just as spectacular as the pistols. In hunting, they utilise cavatation to increase the damage of their hunting strikes. Glad to hear that you will try to find a home if extracted. the more you look into mantis shrim, the more unbelievible complex they apear to be.
Good luck freeing the tank of the shrimp. Perhaps you could use very fine fishing line placed in the sand as a noose so you could noose it when it comes near. Works for me when I trap worms from my tank. Here is a link to my trap set up (post number 131): http://www.thereefuge.com.au/threads/dr_schells-chriss-5ft-x-2-5ft-x-2-5ft-mixed-tank.87/page-7
