Catching a mantis shrimp?

[derek_s]

I may or may not have one. I have heard an occasional clicking in my tank ever since I set it up last August. I thought mantis for a while (as it sometimes repeats rapidly, and I dont think pistols can fire that fast?)

THe thing is I have never seen it. I llok at night with the red flashlight, I look in the day, I look all the time for months and have never seen anything. I thought for sure I would have spotted it if I had one by now.

I do seem to lose snails, but their shells never look broken or smashed. I have several crabs (sally, emerald), but it must be too small to prey on them.

Do you think I might have a mantis? If I do, what kind of traps are most effective for catching it? Are they too smart for the soda bottle trap?

 

[zdaytonaroadster]

the one i had was acutally two dumb for the soda trap, he couldnt figure out a way in. He ended up trying to attack my clownfish, he charged right at him, the clown was all "well screw this, i'm outta here" and darted to the other side of the tank, and i manged to snag him (mantis) with a net and save myself a huge problem.

That being said, i have heard some poping in my rock for a while and i feard another one, but havent seen one since and the poping hasnt come back in months

 

[ryanh487]

i have a tiny pistol that a friend found hitchhiking in his tank. it is less than 1" long, and i can hear it pop in the next room. sometimes it pops rapidly, too. if you still have all your hermits and snails and are not finding any crushed shells of any size, i would be willing to bet it is just a small pistol. i had mine in a 2.5 gallon for a year and never saw it, only heard it, so i can imagine finding one in your tank would be near impossible. i wouldn't be too worried about it. if it is a mantis, he will get big enough to start smashing snails and hermits long before he's big enough for fish, so you'll notice the leftovers and recognize the need to remove him then. he'll be bigger and easier to catch as well at that point. but like i said, it's probably just a little pistol shrimp.

 

[jesspete]

It took months before we saw our mantis hitchhiker. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that yours is a pistol. Now that he's gone, I keep finding shells in turned up sand. The smaller shells were definitely broken into, some are just empty. I never could catch him, even with soda bottle trick, so I started feeding him krill on a feeding stick in hopes he'd be too happy to kill anyone. He'd come out and ride the stick almost to the top, but not quite. I didn't feed him for a couple of weeks and he started coming out where I could see him. I figured he was super hungry, tried the trap again and it worked in less than an hour. Granted, this was after nine months.

 

[derek_s]

I wish I knew where to even look for him.

So will the pistols kill astrea and nassarius snails? I didnt know their pop was so powerful.

 

[enderg60]

yes pistols can fire that fast. Mine does. yes they can kill snails, but mine hasnt killed anything in at least 4 years, which is how long ive had him and how longs its been since ive seen him.

 

[derek_s]

So assuming it is a pistol, what are my options? Just leave it alone?

 

[fish scales2]

Get him a cool watchmen goby.

 

[rostato]

I had the exact same problem for about 6 months. I could never see it or anything. So what I did was set up a 5G bucket with a heater and powerhead, and was going to one by one put each rock in there for a week and see if I didnt hear it anymore.

Turns out the first one I put in there had whetever it was in it. Everytime i heard it it cam from a certian spot in the tank, so I picked the rock with the most holes for something to hide in a threw it in the bucket and no more clicking sound in my tank.

I still can't get the little bugger out of the rock, and still have never seen if its a pistol or mantis. So I think I am left with just letting the rock dry out to rid it of it. I really didnt want to do that because this rock is coveredin coraline, and sponges, oh well.

 

[derek_s]

Have you tried iodine? Maybe that will drive it out.

 

[rostato]

I thought about that, but have no idea how to do it without overdoing it.

 

[jesspete]

I thought you could pour club soda or something on the rock and it would drive it out. That would probably toast the sponges though.

 

[gwhiz]

JessPete;313887 wrote: I thought you could pour club soda or something on the rock and it would drive it out. That would probably toast the sponges though.

Club soda will usually do the trick...pour it in any holes you think he's hiding in. Or make some saltwater with twice the salt content and dip the rock in that. If you rinse the rock in normal saltwater right afterwards other life should be okay.

I tore my entire tank apart once looking for a Mantis after hearing clicking and my wife said she saw a mantis swim across the tank. I dipped every rock one at a time avoiding actually dunking any corals. I found six small (3/4") pistol shrimp, but no mantis. When I was putting the tank back together my peppermint shrimp moved and I hear...."Oh that's what I saw...".

 

[rostato]

haha, yeah peppermints will look wierd at night. I may try a high salinity dip...

 

[ryanh487]

the type of pistol it is depends on how destructive it is. the species i have, and the one that apparently is a common hitchhiker, is in the Alpheus</em> family, like a randall's pistol, and stays small. he was in a 2.5 with 2 tiny blue legs and 3 tiny nerites and never touched them. he just hunts big pods and scoots the sand around.

 

[derek_s]

So. it is most likely he has a burrow?

So, if I look for places where the sand appears to be moved around, it is likely that he is living nearby?

 

[ryanh487]

Derek_S;313908 wrote: So. it is most likely he has a burrow?

So, if I look for places where the sand appears to be moved around, it is likely that he is living nearby?

possibly. mine lived in the rock in my friend's tank, and never had signs of a burrow. but he lived in the sand in my tank, and had a big mound of all the large pieces of substrate he could pull out of the sand at the main entrance.

 

[derek_s]

I have a suspicion as to which rock he might be in. guess I should pull it, but it is my acan island, so that will be risky...

 

[ace1204]

Do you have any cleaner shrimp or pepperminet shrimp? Those would be the first killed by a pistol or mantis? Do you hear the sound at night or during the day or both?

 

[derek_s]

I have both types of shrimp. My peppermints I never see, but I do happen to see molts now and again so at least one is still alive. The Cleaners are pretty hefty, so maybe they are just too big for the pistol.

I hear the clicking at all times of day, but I guess it seems more frequent in the evening, but then again I am home more in the evening, so that would make sense that I hear it more then.