Cytosol Posted March 1, 2009 Author Share Posted March 1, 2009 OHHH ok I see what you are seeing.. Yes, that is definitely not a mantis. If it were a mantis, the first thing you would see would be two googly dark red eyes, as well as alot of clicking. From what I have heard, you will always hear clicking when a mantis is in your tank. It looks like a xanthid crab, maybe a gorilla. You definitely want that guy out. Are you able to remove the rock and remove the crab? They are very tough to get out of rocks especially if you can't poke at them from the rear.. Link to comment
dduncan Posted March 1, 2009 Share Posted March 1, 2009 Cytosol, I have an excellent book that explains how to remove a mantis. 1) protect your hands with strong gloves. 2) you can try poking a wire or skewer into a hole in your LR to persuade him out or 3) pour carbonated mineral water into his lair often persuades them to leave while doing minimal damage to other life on the rock Just hold the rock over a separate container with some of your tank water in it. That way if he comes out he'll be okay and you can keep him or give to someone who wants him. Hope these suggestions work. Do protect your hands though. Link to comment
jds Posted March 2, 2009 Share Posted March 2, 2009 Yeah the pics suck as I didnt have a tripod and my DSLR. It does look somewhat hairy but the length of his torso makes me wonder. anyhow, I set the old raw shrimp in the large shot glass trick right outside his front door. turned off the lights and now am waiting!! We shall see what I catch. Link to comment
Alcapown Posted March 2, 2009 Share Posted March 2, 2009 Very curious as to whats gonna come out, anticipation. Link to comment
sunshine5178 Posted March 2, 2009 Share Posted March 2, 2009 jds - Looks like an emerald to me. I've had two. I love em. I didn't think they ate meat though.... Link to comment
jds Posted March 2, 2009 Share Posted March 2, 2009 jds - Looks like an emerald to me. I've had two. I love em. I didn't think they ate meat though.... I thought I would try the raw shrimp first and then a fire poker! Its big and seems to be eating my CUC. -jds Link to comment
jds Posted March 4, 2009 Share Posted March 4, 2009 Do emerald crabs have guns like this? also do they have bumps on it? he moved locations and I found him this afternoon trying to get a hermit trapped...Best pic I could get as he was 2 layers of rock deep and its hard to focus the camera. So what is this? Link to comment
Mercuryne Posted March 8, 2009 Share Posted March 8, 2009 Hmm... If I'm looking at the right spot on the pictures it looks hairy... which means it's a crab of some sorts. agreed.. looks like the legs of an emerald... Thanks for the advice, Mercuryne. Can you please post a link to that thread? I tried the bottle technique but was unsuccessful.. However, I will definitely give it another try. The problem I am having is I am unable to entice this guy to come out of his hole with any food. I guess he has plenty of whatever it is he is eating. I have not lost any hermits or snails yet (that I can see) but he still seems to be healthy and poppin' away. jds: Are you able to take better pictures? I can't see for the life of me what you are looking at.. Can you circle the area that you are curious about? Cytosol, just click the picture at the bottom of my post.. the photo of my tank that says MERCURYNE's 28G ALGAE FARM it will take you to my thread...i think the pics of the bottle trick are somewhere on 6, 7, or 8 Link to comment
boonani Posted March 8, 2009 Share Posted March 8, 2009 Did you try putting the rock in a bucket with high salinity water? Squirting boiling water at it sounds like you would it do it more harm than good. Link to comment
Cytosol Posted March 9, 2009 Author Share Posted March 9, 2009 Thanks for the advice, Merc.. I tried the bottle thing once, but he didn't fall for it. I am not going to feed my tank for a week and then try a cocktail shrimp or a prawn in a bottle.. He must be getting hungry unless there is a really good supply of food in the tank that I don't know about! I will try it again next weekend and see what happens Link to comment
sunshine5178 Posted March 24, 2009 Share Posted March 24, 2009 Do emerald crabs have guns like this? also do they have bumps on it? he moved locations and I found him this afternoon trying to get a hermit trapped...Best pic I could get as he was 2 layers of rock deep and its hard to focus the camera. So what is this? Both my emeralds had one pretty freakin’ big claw and bumps all over their shell. Btw I think your fire poker idea just might do the trick lol! Link to comment
Cytosol Posted April 11, 2009 Author Share Posted April 11, 2009 I FINALLY FINALLY caught this guy! I purchased a mantis trap, tried the pop bottle trap, nothing worked.. I had to tear my tank apart to remove 2 camel shrimp I had mistakenly purchased and as I was looking at the LR, I saw one rock with a TON of holes in it that weren't there before. I had a bottle of soda water laying around so I squirted some in the holes.. After about 5 seconds, the mantis came running out of the hole and it looked like it was in PAIN. It plopped into a pitcher of saltwater I had and was writhing in pain.. poor guy. He was fine after a bit though.. He is a peacock, and maybe 3/4" long. Very tiny, and i can't believe how much noise something so small can make! I put him in a plastic breader trap I had and zip-tied the lid on so there was no chance of him getting out. Is there a chance he will punch a hole through this trap? I don't know what to do with him, I am thinking of buying another small tank to raise him in or maybe selling it.. I will take pictures when I have some time. He is very cool looking.. It is actually difficult to determine the type, he might actually just be a brown or dark green mantis, but I can see some of the more colorful characteristics on its head so I think it is a peacock. Link to comment
ReeferNoob Posted April 20, 2009 Share Posted April 20, 2009 WOW, I've been following this thread and I'm surprised you finally got him! What do you end up doing with him? Link to comment
Cytosol Posted April 28, 2009 Author Share Posted April 28, 2009 Long story short.. I caught him, put him in a glass jar with a plastic lid and small holes drilled in it. I was going to buy another tank to put him in, but he broke his way out of the lid and escaped back into the aquarium! He didn't return to his same rock, so I don't know where he is now. Here is the best picture I could get of him. It is a purple spot mantis shrimp, or Gonodactylus smithii. I'm going to have to tear my tank apart when I get another aquarium to find him.. It is pretty easy to spot where he is though, the holes he digs in the rocks are pretty large. Link to comment
greech Posted April 28, 2009 Share Posted April 28, 2009 That is crazy! All that work to find out what he was and catch him and he busts out of jail. You got your hands full with that one! Mantis truely give me the heebeegeebees but that one has spunk. I might have to get a tank just for him. Link to comment
Cytosol Posted June 9, 2009 Author Share Posted June 9, 2009 FYI I caught this guy again. He moved to another rock and dug another tunnel of holes in it.. He is now secured in a glass jar with SMALL 'air' holes. He seems to be partial to frozen food and is very very active.. Anyways, anyone that lives in Calgary want to take this guy off my hands? He deserves a good home and I don't think a glass jar is really doing it for him. Link to comment
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