What will eat a 1 inch mantis

[goldenboy]

Well It's been a couple of months now and I still can't get the mantis out of the tank. He is only 1 inch long so I thought that I would buy a hawkfish and see if it might be able to get him out of the tank. So far the only thing he has done is kill a couple of snails, but I am affraid of what he will do as he gets bigger.

Anyway, what do you all think of the hawkfish idea?
Can you suggest any other reef friendly fish that would eat the mantis and fit in my 40gal?

 

[Anonymous]

my money is on the mantis killing the hawk.you could always try a 3" mantis :wink:

take a mayonaisse jar, glue a piece of fiberglass net on the mouth of the jar, in the form of an inverted cone(the cone points into the jar-with the cone opening just large enough to let the mantis in.).place some chopped clam in the jar, set it next to the mantis' burrow just before lights out.repeat nightly.this should work.may take time :wink:

if you know which rock the mantis usually hides in, the best bet, if it's possible, is to remove the rock, and spear the mantis w/a screwdriver, or knitting needle-or leave it in a 5 gal. bucket till it leaves its hole, and quickly remove the rock.

hawks may perch on your corals, and irritate them, though they have awesome personality.the flame hawk is my favorite.

good luck

 

[goldenboy]

you could always try a 3" mantis :wink:

Ha Ha very funny. :?

my money is on the mantis killing the hawk.

Well he is really small and hasn't killed my ocelaris clown, yellow acessor and lawnmower blenny in the 2 months that he has been in the tank.

take a mayonaisse jar, glue a piece of fiberglass net on the mouth of the jar, in the form of an inverted cone(the cone points into the jar-with the cone opening just large enough to let the mantis in.).place some chopped clam in the jar, set it next to the mantis' burrow just before lights out.repeat nightly.this should work.may take time :wink:

Been doin that with a film canister in the sand, but he just doesn't have the guts to go in.

if you know which rock the mantis usually hides in, the best bet, if it's possible, is to remove the rock, and spear the mantis w/a screwdriver, or knitting needle-or leave it in a 5 gal. bucket till it leaves its hole, and quickly remove the rock.

well he was originally in the biggest rock in my tank. the rock takes up a wopping 1/3 of the forty gal. reef and wieghs around 30lbs. if memory serves. Unfortunately he has decided to go on the move recently and pops in and out of the rocks throughout my reef taunting me. in fact I can see him poking his head out of my main support rock as I write this. :evil:

hawks may perch on your corals, and irritate them, though they have awesome personality.the flame hawk is my favorite.
good luck

The flame is my fave to : 8)

Thanks for the tips Vitz. Anybody else?

 

[goldenboy]

Speaking of perching on corals. My lawnmower blenny always hangs out on my green star polyps(large colony, really nice color). It doesn't bother them fortunately.

It looks so cool, I wish that I had a good enough digi cam to take a pic for you all to see. I bought one of those clever cam 360s that they advertise on the tv and its $100 worth of junk. It can barely take pics of people let alone my reef, not to mention that it loses pics if I don't download them to my pc in a few hours.

 

[Anonymous]

what size is the film canister you used? it may be too small...

 

[goldenboy]

what size is the film canister you used? it may be too small...

35mm, it should be big enough for him to get into easy, but
I'll give the mayo jar a try just in case.

 

[Anonymous]

mantis's generally prefer a deeper type of 'cave' to enter-it's quite possible that the small size of the film canister worked against you.a long(6") piece of pvc(2"dia.), capped at one end, may work even better.

hth

good luck, keep us posted

 

[goldenboy]

good luck, keep us posted

Will do, thanks.

 

[john f]

Ok,

I guess I have to be the mantis defender again.

Did he come in on Florida live rock? Is he greenish or brown, kinda plain looking?

If so you have a smasher type mantis........probably Gonodactylus species.
These generally stay small (<3") and eat snails and crabs...............NOT fish.

I have had a 3" Gonodactylus in my reef tank for 9 months now. He has never harmed a fish or coral, although I do think he kills the occasional snail. Not the end of the world and certainly no reason to panic.

In fact he takes food like mysis that I feed to the rest of the fish. And since I feed often he probably gets enough food the lazy way.

He is a very neat animal and I consider him part of my reef system.
If you want to get rid of yours fine, but don't panic. Relax for a couple weeks and do some reading on these types of mantis. You may change your mind.

BTW, these things only live 2-3 years total, so even if you kept him he would not last forever. You may have to buy a dozen new snails a year, but the mantis is sure a lot more interesting to watch than a snail.



John

 

[goldenboy]

he is a smasher type mantis, so I have never been worried about my fish. I do however, have two expensive Hawaiian hermits that i don't want to lose. One is neon orange and red and the other is a really bright neon blue and black.

I had actually bought the mantis from a guy that did not want it. At the time it was blue and I was cycling a 5 gal tank for it. In the mean time I had put him in a critter keeper in my sump. Anyway he busted out and managed to get past the pump impeller and into the main tank. He has since turned brown in the main tank. I would like to keep him if I can catch him, but he is getting on my nerves.

 

[Nathan1]

Blue ring octopus.

It'll do in your little mantis shrimp.

-Nathan

 

[danmhippo]

If you don't mind fish being eaten as well, an octopus is a good choice. Otherwise, if you don't mind critters on the rocks, do freshwater dip of the rock he hides in (or all rocks if you are not sure). It's also a good time to do a large water change while you do freshwater dips.

 

[john f]

"I would like to keep him if I can catch him, but he is getting on my nerves"


What exactly is he doing?


I know one thing, a mantis is 100 times more interesting than a hermit crab.


It does concern me that you bought it from someone. Do you know the original source? Was it Florida rock?



John

 

[goldenboy]

John he really isn't doing anything bad in the tank, but like I said earlier I have two $20 dollar hawaian hermits that mean a lot more to me than he does(trust me if you could see these hermits you would uderstand). I already have a tank set up for him But I have been trying for two moths to catch him. In my tank I rarely see him except an ocasional head poping in and out of the rocks. I really want him in a tank of his own so I can enjoy him more.

Why does it concern you about why I purchased him from someone? Is it because you think that it might be illegaly collected? FWIW The guy I bought it from got it out of a shipment of gulf view aquacultured live rock.

 

[john f]

My only concern was that it could be a pacific mantis. These can get very large and nasty.

Since you know it came in on Gulf-View rock it is one of the OK mantis IMO.


Since the title of your thread is "what will eat a 1" mantis" I assumed you wanted to kill it.



John

 

[goldenboy]

Since the title of your thread is "what will eat a 1" mantis" I assumed you wanted to kill it.

Well thats only as a last resort since I can't seem to catch him. He never stays in one rock so I can't take a rock out and dip it.

 

[john f]

If you really want to catch him try this:

Take some nylon stocking and tie some large pieces of shrimp in the end.
Attach a fishing line, drop in the tank, and wait. ( This may take a couple hours and needs to be done at night when the lights are off.)

When the mantis tries to get the shrimp his claws will become entangled in the nylon and you can quickly pull the whole mess out of the tank and into a waiting bucket.
This works about 50% of the time according to my LFS.



John

 

[Big_fish]

I've always had good luck catching shrimp by using a 16oz plastic soda bottle.

Take the bottle and cut the top off right where the neck reaches the top widest part of the bottle. Turn the neck inside out and put a couple of drops of superglue on the edge to hold it in. The neck should fit perfectly in the diameter of the bottle if you do it this way. Poke a few small holes in the bottle to allow water in and the scent of the bait out. Place a few rocks or some sand in the bottom of the bottle along with an odiferous morsel of bait such as clam, shrimp, or oyster. Place it in the tank next to the shrimp's burrow and be patient.

I have used this for a mantis effectively in the past. The key is that the distance between the inverted bottle neck and the side of the bottle is great enough to prevent the sucker from climbing out. You can never try the same trick twice with a Mantis.


HTH,
Scott

 

[wombat1]

Blue ring octopus.

It'll do in your little mantis shrimp.

Yeah, and you and any other person in the house too. You're going to find it hard to get something that will kill your mantis but not your crabs. I would just dismantle all the rocks and dip them in 1.030 water or greater for a while, he should come squirming out.

 

[goldenboy]

Thanks for the help guys. I'll keep you posted.