Mantis Found, need advice

[RedStar265]

Well ive found my elusive hermit killer. He seems to be a peacock mantis, his raptor appendages are covered with green orbs, and they are starting to develop along the rest of his body. The orbs that is. His legs seem to be reddish brown. Okay he is in my 55 gal reef, and has been very non-chalant about leaving his burrow to get mysid shrimps that my fish miss. He often comes completely out and onto the sandbed. Need any and all advice on how to remove him. He is a supremely interesting creature, but i don't want to waste anymore money on cleanup crews just to feed him. Thanks for any help....

Chris

p.s. - if I continue to give him food every other day or so, will he leave hermits alone?? Oh he is just about 1" or a little less in length.

[COreefer]

Place a dixie cup upside down with holes poked in it in the corner of your tank. Place a scallop in the cup and make sure it is anchored so that fish or inverts cannot move it. Wait until he comes out and snag his butt. This method works if you are ptient. When you get him out send him to me. ;)

[ggoodrich]

I caught one out of my tank using a 4" piece of PVC. I read about this somewhere else, but can't remember where. I drilled a small hole in one end to tie a string to. Cover the other end with a piece of panty hose with a rubber band around it, or some such method that allows water through. Put a piece of fresh shrimp inside and put align the pvc so that it is close to the rock or area that the shrimp is in and wait. As soon as the shrimp is all the way in the pvc, yank it out of the tank. Worked great for me, had to wait about 15-20 minutes while the shrimp checked out the situation.

[cmiannay]

Sorry... double posted while trying to edit :hmm5:

[cmiannay]

I saw a great solution posted about this yesterday...

Take an empty 2-liter plastic Coke bottle, discard the cap, cut the neck off 2" from the top, then place it inverted into the bottle and throw a piece of raw shrimp in there. In the morning, you will have your nasty mantis!

(Remember, I didn't originally post this, so I can't tell you more detail than that. I recall it was a vendor that suggested it)

Hope it helps!

[Malofish]

If you catch him I would like to keep him as a pet, you can e-mail me if you would like to try work some thing out squared351@budweiser.com