How to find a Mantis Shrimp?

[bacon09]

It's been 2 weeks and it's driving me insane. You can hear the smashing and clicking all day long and even for hours after the lights go out. Sometimes it's just a small snapping sound and other times it's so loud that I think it's trying to break the glass lol. Series of 5 or 6 clicks are common, about one per second, sometimes faster. I've tried waiting at night and using a red flashlight to try and spot him, no luck. Sat for 3 hours in front of the tank inspecting every little crevice, under the rocks, behind, even from above the tank, Nothing. Whenever I hear the smashing and I'm close to the tank I start looking at all the hermits/snails to see if they're being attacked and they seem completely undisturbed, even the small 1/2" hermits are alive, and the peppermint shrimp have even molted and are all alive and healthy. I have a bunch of empty shells on my sand bed for the hermits to switch when needed so I can't really tell if they're being eaten (I have about 60 hermits of various sizes) but I don't see any crushed shells, they're all intact. :headwallblue:

How is it possible to hear this thing every day and not have seen it once? Not even a glimpse of it. I see them in youtube videos coming out and swimming around all the time, even being bold enough to take food from tweezers. The first mantis hitchhiker I had came out all the time with the lights on and even swam to the surface, took less than 1 hour to remove once I noticed him.

Any suggestions? I have about 100 pounds of live rock so taking all of it out is NOT something I'm willing to do. :fun5:

[cloak]

Check this out. There's a whole forum here at RC dedicated to the mantis shrimp. Lot's of good information.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1710644

[bluewater921]

try a empty water bottle take the cap off put some blue legs in it leave it over night and you will prob catch it ..

[coondog]

If your not seeing any carnage..smashed shells, crab pieces, etc.. It could ba a snapping shrimp or of you have any clownfish they can make a clicking noise. Could be something other than a mantis shrimp. Just a thought....

[bacon09]

Mantis are too smart for the bottle trap... they will eventually figure their way out if left sitting overnight, and they will learn from that experience so the trap won't work again on that shrimp. Only way this would work is if I tied some fishing line to the trap and waited next to the tank so I can pull it out as soon as he gets inside <- this is what I did with my first mantis, which was already out in the open... but I have never seen this one so I doubt it will magically come out and get into the trap.

Definitely not seeing any carnage... I do have a clownfish pair and it could also be a pistol shrimp but do they make these clicks all day? Someone told me they only do it when threatened. Could it be just hermit crabs banging the glass with their shells? I have so many...

Either way after reading that link by cloak I figured I'll just let it stay in there (if I do have one)... according to it MOST hitchhiker mantis shrimp aren't nearly as destructive as we think (except for the 2 species that get large enough to break glass).

[rhyerob]

Get a fish trap. Take everything else out and quarantine, lest you give him a good meal.

[bacon09]

It's smashing like crazy right now... to the point I think it might be the stand or the tank cracking and no shrimp lol

I don't have the time to take everything out of the tank... I'll just let it be until it finally comes out one day. Or until I start seeing dead snails/crabs. Right now it's not worth the trouble... really just the clicks driving me nuts but I can't hear that from my room.

[bluewater921]

bacon it worked for me a few times .. the water bottle trap was about the best thing .. the other traps all they did was catch fish snails and blue legs ..

[bacon09]

It worked for me once as I said but I was waiting close to the tank to pull it out as soon as it got in.

After reading all the threads on the Mantis Forum last night I completely changed my mind. Not only I will leave it alone, I wanna get one of the smaller/colorful/active species that I will house in my tank... one that I can watch all the time. I can deal with replacing a few $0.50 hermits every now and then... you can catch them by the thousands (no kidding) in the Florida Keys during low tide every day (I'm from Miami), and snails are just as cheap... I doubt a mantis that grows no bigger than 5" will be able to make dent on my CUC.

Thanks for all the replies tho. Especially cloak because it totally changed my view on these creatures lol