How to catch a Mantis in your reef - Page 3

EI Gringo · 11/02/2015, 03:07 AM

Pistol shrimp 99% sure

Mayberry · 01/27/2016, 01:37 PM

How long do mantis live in a tank?

SilvaReefer · 02/02/2016, 07:33 PM

Had a mantis for two years that I couldn't trap no matter what I tried. He was a really wily critter. So I borrowed a snow flake eel and within a day the mantis was eaten. The eel was a lot easier to trap and return to the shop.

Dmize · 08/16/2016, 05:45 PM

wow... interesting reads here. Found one in a bucket we used to transport some LR from our LFS so we tossed him in our sump. Have not seen him since... about 2 months ago.

Zatoichi · 12/22/2016, 01:54 AM

Mantis shrimp are no joke we had a couple crushing mantis that would drive us nuts with popping all the time finally had to take all of the rock out and dip them one by one into a bucket of fresh water and boom he came shooting out :-) he must have been a tiny baby when he came into the system but he was the size of my pinky by the time he got done eating everything hahaha

Sent from my SM-J700T1 using Tapatalk

Hadla · 12/22/2016, 05:41 PM

What did you do with him?

NilsRenstrom · 01/10/2017, 04:42 AM

I got a mantis shrimp as a hitchhiker back in 2015. It took a while to properly identify him, but eventually i saw him searching for food during dusk feeding... A small, lime green mantis, not more than 2-3 inches long. Always curious and on its toes while feeding.

He lived a long time peacefully in the community with a boxing shrimp, cleaner shrimp and a peppermint shrimp till one day he decided he wanted the peppermint shrimp and just went for it... it was obvious that the other shrimps were alive only because the mantis just hadn't decided to eat them yet. I managed to catch him in a bottle trap and move him to a separate 30L aquarum where he seemed to do well.

When the main display got upgraded in may 2016 (and i grew tired of taking care of two aquariums) he moved in to the sump of the main aquarium, living off the food that was passed down from above. He didn't make much of a fuzz and we started to presume he was dead. We sold off a lot of the leftover rock from a rescape and still didn't find the shrimp. The unsold rock was then put in a barrel with circulation, but no heat or light and put away for a few months. When the last piece of rock had been sold, without spotting the shrimp, i decided to empty the barrel. While i poured all of the remaining water out i spotted the shrimp, well alive and kickin'. He had been living in cold water for the greater part of two months, with no lightning or feeding. Amazed by the hardiness he was, again, moved into the sump and later on i managed to find a suitable home for him... Extrordinary creatures!

nmotz · 02/05/2017, 09:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NilsRenstrom

I got a mantis shrimp as a hitchhiker back in 2015. It took a while to properly identify him, but eventually i saw him searching for food during dusk feeding... A small, lime green mantis, not more than 2-3 inches long. Always curious and on its toes while feeding.

He lived a long time peacefully in the community with a boxing shrimp, cleaner shrimp and a peppermint shrimp till one day he decided he wanted the peppermint shrimp and just went for it... it was obvious that the other shrimps were alive only because the mantis just hadn't decided to eat them yet. I managed to catch him in a bottle trap and move him to a separate 30L aquarum where he seemed to do well.

When the main display got upgraded in may 2016 (and i grew tired of taking care of two aquariums) he moved in to the sump of the main aquarium, living off the food that was passed down from above. He didn't make much of a fuzz and we started to presume he was dead. We sold off a lot of the leftover rock from a rescape and still didn't find the shrimp. The unsold rock was then put in a barrel with circulation, but no heat or light and put away for a few months. When the last piece of rock had been sold, without spotting the shrimp, i decided to empty the barrel. While i poured all of the remaining water out i spotted the shrimp, well alive and kickin'. He had been living in cold water for the greater part of two months, with no lightning or feeding. Amazed by the hardiness he was, again, moved into the sump and later on i managed to find a suitable home for him... Extrordinary creatures!

wow that is awesome! Wish all mantis shrimp were that hardy, but that is really impressive.

Kharsin · 04/21/2018, 11:40 PM

"Mantis shrimp also do not eat corals, nor will they damage them. The only exception is if the coral is not anchored down to a rock. The mantis will usually move the coral to block its burrow entrance, only it will be the wrong side up. So your corals are safe."

Forgive my saltwater inexperience, but I take it from this quote that corals are relatively safe with Mantis Shrimp, provided they are secured? I'm asking because I would like to keep a Peacock Shrimp, but wasn't sure if keeping corals with them was viable. Of course, I'd love to keep a lot of things eventually, but something about the Peacock makes me want to start there. I'm new to the forum, so I'm not sure if there's much info on keeping corals with a mantis, other then I've seen lots of threads like this one on how to get them out of the aquarium rather than keep them in one.

Hadla · 04/22/2018, 01:48 AM

I don’t see why not! I think they just get a bad rep for the wrong reasons, they’re such fascinating creatures!

mndfreeze · 04/25/2018, 12:56 AM

So mantis will not eat or mess with corals except how its stated there, where they might steal your frags to use as building material or to block their tunnel entrances when they sleep at night.

HOWEVER.

Some species like peacocks do not tolerate high light very well. There is a theory (think its still just a theory) that it can cause shell rot or somehow affect the animals health in a negative way. There are species of mantis that live in high light coral areas you can go with if having a coral reef tank is what you want to do. Otherwise you would need to build around that idea.

Some people will get LED spotlight style lights and focus them down on say, just a single rock outcrop in the tank so they can mount some coral there, but the majority of the rest of the tank isn't really lit including where the mantis shrimp is going to live.

Hadla · 04/26/2018, 01:42 AM

Oh true lol I don’t have lights on my mantis tanks so I tend to forget that

Angel*Fish · 04/26/2018, 06:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hadla

I don’t see why not! I think they just get a bad rep for the wrong reasons, they’re such fascinating creatures!

I think the problem is what they like to do to sleeping fish

mndfreeze · 04/26/2018, 11:55 PM

I think thats pretty species dependent when it comes to hunting sleeping fish, or perhaps more an opportunistic behavior. I kept fish with my ternatensis and not a single one died in the few years I had him.

Now my CUC crew, that was another matter lolol. I just kept my choices of snails and hermits restocked and highly varied in size and species to figure out which stuff he preferred over others so I knew what to buy more of to actually function as CUC and what to buy that was just a longer lived mid-day snack. haha.

My Ternatensis even when full grown never killed a Turbo snail. He popped one a few times but gave up really fast on it. He would dESTROY hermit crabs and any other crab I put in. Absolutely loved them. Smaller snails like trochus and astrea lasted longer but eventually would become a snack. I can't say he never killed a nassarius but I had quite a few and easily could have missed a few getting killed.

Angel*Fish · 04/27/2018, 02:41 PM

I imagine it could be species specific, but as far as I know there's no list of fish safe mantises. It also depends on the type of fish you have. I don't think you'd have to worry about a trigger fish, for example

I'd be concerned it was eating things like amphipods and worms which I'd find very objectionable

Qob · 10/13/2019, 03:08 AM

Catch by oppo

Milemarker0 · 09/07/2020, 11:20 AM

Good job on the mantis shrimp trap.

01/27/2016, 01:37 PM	#52
Mayberry Registered Member Join Date: Jun 2015 Location: Mount Airy, NC Posts: 79	Mantis life span? How long do mantis live in a tank? __________________ "I want patience and I want it now!"

02/02/2016, 07:33 PM	#53
SilvaReefer Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2016 Posts: 14	Had a mantis for two years that I couldn't trap no matter what I tried. He was a really wily critter. So I borrowed a snow flake eel and within a day the mantis was eaten. The eel was a lot easier to trap and return to the shop. __________________ 20 high (24x12x16) mixed reef LED lights, protein skimmer and chiller sailfin tang, six line wrasse, 2x oscellaris clowns

12/22/2016, 05:41 PM	#56
Hadla Mantis Whisperer Join Date: Dec 2014 Location: Sacramento, CA Posts: 574	What did you do with him? __________________ Aquarium count: 7 salt: 2x10g, 29 biocube, 30g, 55g, 75g, 225g, and one fresh 20g planted tank! Puffer, octopus, and mantis shrimp fanatic!

04/21/2018, 11:40 PM	#59
Kharsin Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2018 Location: Sulphur, LA Posts: 17	"Mantis shrimp also do not eat corals, nor will they damage them. The only exception is if the coral is not anchored down to a rock. The mantis will usually move the coral to block its burrow entrance, only it will be the wrong side up. So your corals are safe." Forgive my saltwater inexperience, but I take it from this quote that corals are relatively safe with Mantis Shrimp, provided they are secured? I'm asking because I would like to keep a Peacock Shrimp, but wasn't sure if keeping corals with them was viable. Of course, I'd love to keep a lot of things eventually, but something about the Peacock makes me want to start there. I'm new to the forum, so I'm not sure if there's much info on keeping corals with a mantis, other then I've seen lots of threads like this one on how to get them out of the aquarium rather than keep them in one. __________________ “If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.” Current Tank Info: Wife has a 37 gallon freshwater \| 7.9 gallon freshwater \| dreams of a pico reef (in progress)

04/22/2018, 01:48 AM	#60
Hadla Mantis Whisperer Join Date: Dec 2014 Location: Sacramento, CA Posts: 574	I don’t see why not! I think they just get a bad rep for the wrong reasons, they’re such fascinating creatures! __________________ Aquarium count: 7 salt: 2x10g, 29 biocube, 30g, 55g, 75g, 225g, and one fresh 20g planted tank! Puffer, octopus, and mantis shrimp fanatic!

11/02/2015, 03:07 AM	#51
EI Gringo Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2015 Location: Derbyshire, England Posts: 525	Pistol shrimp 99% sure

08/16/2016, 05:45 PM	#54
Dmize Registered Member Join Date: May 2016 Posts: 50	wow... interesting reads here. Found one in a bucket we used to transport some LR from our LFS so we tossed him in our sump. Have not seen him since... about 2 months ago.

12/22/2016, 01:54 AM	#55
Zatoichi Registered Member Join Date: May 2015 Posts: 440	Mantis shrimp are no joke we had a couple crushing mantis that would drive us nuts with popping all the time finally had to take all of the rock out and dip them one by one into a bucket of fresh water and boom he came shooting out :-) he must have been a tiny baby when he came into the system but he was the size of my pinky by the time he got done eating everything hahaha Sent from my SM-J700T1 using Tapatalk

01/10/2017, 04:42 AM	#57
NilsRenstrom Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2016 Location: Lund, Sweden Posts: 23	I got a mantis shrimp as a hitchhiker back in 2015. It took a while to properly identify him, but eventually i saw him searching for food during dusk feeding... A small, lime green mantis, not more than 2-3 inches long. Always curious and on its toes while feeding. He lived a long time peacefully in the community with a boxing shrimp, cleaner shrimp and a peppermint shrimp till one day he decided he wanted the peppermint shrimp and just went for it... it was obvious that the other shrimps were alive only because the mantis just hadn't decided to eat them yet. I managed to catch him in a bottle trap and move him to a separate 30L aquarum where he seemed to do well. When the main display got upgraded in may 2016 (and i grew tired of taking care of two aquariums) he moved in to the sump of the main aquarium, living off the food that was passed down from above. He didn't make much of a fuzz and we started to presume he was dead. We sold off a lot of the leftover rock from a rescape and still didn't find the shrimp. The unsold rock was then put in a barrel with circulation, but no heat or light and put away for a few months. When the last piece of rock had been sold, without spotting the shrimp, i decided to empty the barrel. While i poured all of the remaining water out i spotted the shrimp, well alive and kickin'. He had been living in cold water for the greater part of two months, with no lightning or feeding. Amazed by the hardiness he was, again, moved into the sump and later on i managed to find a suitable home for him... Extrordinary creatures!

04/25/2018, 12:56 AM	#61
mndfreeze Invert Sexy Time! Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Tempe, AZ Posts: 2,255	So mantis will not eat or mess with corals except how its stated there, where they might steal your frags to use as building material or to block their tunnel entrances when they sleep at night. HOWEVER. Some species like peacocks do not tolerate high light very well. There is a theory (think its still just a theory) that it can cause shell rot or somehow affect the animals health in a negative way. There are species of mantis that live in high light coral areas you can go with if having a coral reef tank is what you want to do. Otherwise you would need to build around that idea. Some people will get LED spotlight style lights and focus them down on say, just a single rock outcrop in the tank so they can mount some coral there, but the majority of the rest of the tank isn't really lit including where the mantis shrimp is going to live.

04/26/2018, 01:42 AM	#62
Hadla Mantis Whisperer Join Date: Dec 2014 Location: Sacramento, CA Posts: 574	Oh true lol I don’t have lights on my mantis tanks so I tend to forget that __________________ Aquarium count: 7 salt: 2x10g, 29 biocube, 30g, 55g, 75g, 225g, and one fresh 20g planted tank! Puffer, octopus, and mantis shrimp fanatic!

04/26/2018, 11:55 PM	#64
mndfreeze Invert Sexy Time! Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Tempe, AZ Posts: 2,255	I think thats pretty species dependent when it comes to hunting sleeping fish, or perhaps more an opportunistic behavior. I kept fish with my ternatensis and not a single one died in the few years I had him. Now my CUC crew, that was another matter lolol. I just kept my choices of snails and hermits restocked and highly varied in size and species to figure out which stuff he preferred over others so I knew what to buy more of to actually function as CUC and what to buy that was just a longer lived mid-day snack. haha. My Ternatensis even when full grown never killed a Turbo snail. He popped one a few times but gave up really fast on it. He would dESTROY hermit crabs and any other crab I put in. Absolutely loved them. Smaller snails like trochus and astrea lasted longer but eventually would become a snack. I can't say he never killed a nassarius but I had quite a few and easily could have missed a few getting killed.

04/27/2018, 02:41 PM	#65
Angel*Fish cats and large squashes Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Houston Posts: 5,951 Blog Entries: 1	I imagine it could be species specific, but as far as I know there's no list of fish safe mantises. It also depends on the type of fish you have. I don't think you'd have to worry about a trigger fish, for example I'd be concerned it was eating things like amphipods and worms which I'd find very objectionable __________________ Marie So long, & thanks for all the fish! __________________________ Current Tank Info: Pairs: flame angels, cherub angels, Red Sea mimic blennies, yellow fin fairy wrasses, clowns, mandarins, blackcap basslets, shrimp gobies, damsels, dispar anthias, yellow clown gobies, threadfin cardinals --- Tanks: 100g reef, 2 x 30g refugiums

10/13/2019, 03:08 AM	#66
Qob Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2019 Posts: 1	Catch by oppo

09/07/2020, 11:20 AM	#67
Milemarker0 Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2020 Posts: 18	Good job on the mantis shrimp trap.