Bad New's i'm Gutted...

Today i was cleaning my the algae from the front glass of my tank, when i noticed a small movement by my green mushroom rock, after getting up closer to the glass i witnessed something i never wanted to, the dreaded mantis shrimp, i watched it under the rock , it went out the back crawled round the side looking strainght into my eyes, and then jumped over a 2 inch piece of rock and into a crevice, from this i could see it was a good one and half inch long, and about a cm thick,it was a brown colour, now the funny thing is i have always heard a clicking noise in my tank mostly at night, but because my tanks been running now for 9 months and i have never seen the mantis shrimp i thought it was due to my t5 luminaire cooling down, nine months and i never seen it untill today, ...boy is he fast, no way i could get a pic but its definetly a mantis, what am i to do, im gutted...?

 

Well put mission...

 

They sell traps for them. I bet there is a few on here that would buy it once it's caught. Don't get your hands around it, they have been known to split thumbs. Inwall (Curt) can fill you in on how to catch him.

 

Sounds like a pretty tiny mantis. He will most likely only eat the very smallest of snails and hermits. Might as well try to catch him. I would say send him to me, but since your in UK its not really worth it lol.

 

Have seen the threads here on how maybe to catch one.
I will say that when I was at the LFS I saw one about 3.5" long. I went to the tank and boy was it mean. It was snapping and narling at me.

Then someone bought it and I watched them bag it. Yikes. Sorry, not for me..

Good luck though..

 

I've had about 4 mantis shrimp in the past month. I have had luck detecting which rock it is in by listing for the clicks. I then pull the rock and begin dousing it with plain soda water (it is just water and carbonation) in a large container. I've had some jump out immediately and some took upwards of half an hour. If any other creatures appear (like crabs and snails) that you want just pluck them up and put back in the tank immediately. Note; it also drove out various worms I didn't want and pistol shrimp.

 

If it is making clicking/poping noises it sounds more like a pistol shrimp to me. What did his body look like? Claws? How where the eyes situated?

Happy reefing!

 

A small hitchhiking mantis is NOT going to gut your tank. Yeah, I know what you've read......big deal. Kittens and lions are both felines but they are very different. Various species of mantis are very different too.

Wanna know how I catch them for my friends? I go to their house and ask for some meaty food and their remote control. I put the meaty food in my hand where they last saw the mantis. Then I stand there, watch TV, and close my hand when I feel mantis swimmerets.

 

You are a brave man dude. If I had one, I would be tearing down rocks and trying to drive it out with nasty water in a separate bucket.