Found two mantis shrimp on my coral

[easygoer2]

Brought home a akropora from the LFS. Real nice colony. Anyway I was looking and seen two mantis shrimp on it. Only heard bad things about these things. If I wanted them in my tank I would have bought some. Their still on the coral. Guess its there home. How can I catch them alive to give back to the fish store? I can take the coral out of the tank. Can I dip the acropora in something? Any ideas would be helpful.
easygoer2

 

[rlp1]

Just kinda guessing here, but I've always heard mantis shrimp come in hidden in rock, not on corals in plain view. Are you absolutely sure they are mantis shrimp??? You usually find out you have one when your fish start disappearing & you hear clicking noises. There are some harmless commensal hitchhikers that can come in on corals (also some harmful ones too I'm sure). If you're not sure just what it is, & don't want to annihilate something harmless, try posting in the mantis shrimp forum or looking in the hitchhiker ID forum or looking thru some books to try to ID them. I really doubt that they're mantis is they are just sitting in a coral in plain view. Rita

 

[rlp1]

Oops!!!

 

[bayondai]

Sometimes you will get amphipods on your live corals. Attached is a picture. Here is a link to other hitchhickers that could be on the coral. http://www.reefs.org/hhfaq/pages/main_p ... _rock1.htm

 

[Will C1]

depending on youre other inhabitants i have used an octopus to eradicate a mantis shrimp problem before, but like i warned they will eat youre coral banded shrimp as well as any other crustations in the tank.

 

[Anonymous]

Be sure to double check that they are mantis shrimp. It seems a little weird that you could see them if they are mantis - they hide and should jump off the coral into your rock work pretty quick.

Acro's often have neat little crabs living in them that don't harm anything. From the hitch hiker faq:

Mantis from the FAQ:

 

[ShootinBlanks]

I bought a porcilipora about 6 months ago or so and it came with a crab and a pistol shrimp living in it. I also doubt it is a mantis, but possibly a pistol shrimp.