I got a Hitchhiker & I dont want it! MANTIS SHRIMP

[shaggadelic]

so fish have been disappearing and i have been finding broken hermit shells and torn apart hermits. Then this morning I seen it for the first time a small Mantis shrimp... i also seen a little baby one on the sand which i hope my hermits and banded shrimp will eat if not my angler fish!


So how do i catch it? I know i dont want to touch it. any help will be great if not i guess i have to take everything out of my tank

 

[shaggadelic]

 

[Mike J.]

Wow, I never see mine; been in there for several years. I buy new snails 50 or 100 at a time, but I've never lost a fish. Looks very similar to yours. You could try baiting a trap for it. You can get one of those plastic mouse box traps, put it near the rock it hides in, put bait in it, and then weight it down with a rock.

 

[Mike J.]

Another way that you might get the Mantis out - pull the rock that it is in out and put it over a bucket with water in it - within a couple inches of the water at most. Mantis Shrimp have the habit of staying in the rock and will jump ship into the bucket after a few minutes.

 

[quatro]

I've taken a water bottle and cut the top off and inverted it. Add two lil steps of tape to keep the top on and put a lil sand and a piece of shrimp in the bottom. They can get in, but usually can't get out.

 

[quatro]

These lil dudes are smart so if ya don't catch him in 5 min don't give up hope.

 

[EW_Fish]

I got some live rock from a friend and it came along with a mantis(of course I didn't know nor did he) well I was hearing this noise for a long time never knew. Fish died I had to tear the whole tank down because I never saw him. I had to fresh water dip all rock and to still never find him lol but noise and fish during has stopped.

 

[shaggadelic]

I have the bottle thing setup already let's see what happens

 

[quatro]

That's perfect man! If he is hungry and can smell the food he will more than likely he in there in the morn.

 

[quatro]

J they are also pretty easy to train to eat off of a skewer. So if you can get em used to frozen krill, then "bait" him with the bottle trap.

 

[shaggadelic]

Bottle trap didn't work. I just caught opae shrimp (ghost shrimp) and hermits. But I did tear apart my tank and got it in its best in my rock. It wouldn't come out so I had to break it out. (Didn't want to kill other inverts on the rock). In its best I found left overs of 2 of my fish & a bunch or hermit shells. It was about a inch & have long and just bullied all my fish and snapped off a pincher from my coral banded shrimp.

I also found a baby and another smaller size one in the process along with 3 pistol shrimp. In total I lost 5 fish while I had this in my tank as a hitch hiker. I had it for about a month I would say.

 

[ritter6788]

Problem with the bottle trap at night is that they aren't nocturnal. They sleep in a den at night and close the hole. Best way to get them out is, as posted above, just remove the whole rock and make them exit. If you know the hole they are in you can pour some freshwater on them and they will jump out. I use RO/DI or bottled water so it doesn't kill or harm the mantis.

 

[shaggadelic]

yeah i had the bottle in there till about noon. i did fresh water and a high salinity dip and it wouldnt come it so i have to chip the rock apart to get into the nest. i didnt kill its with a friend now who wanted it along with the pistols. I did see a bunch of mantis shrimp in the water yesterday while diving around in the ocean though