Found a mantis

unless he dies, he will have to grow, making him easier to find. you can try to isolate the rock he is in then dip in fresh and hell come right out then you can do whatever you want with him. by "whatever" i mean get a 20 long, pvc, rock, sand, and a build thread

 

nice catch

 

If you take a rock out of the water the sponges on it will die instantly. Not to mention what fresh water will do to it...

I put the bottle trap in the water and now almost all my feather dusters are closed up. Kind of odd. Something about the water must have changed but no idea what.

 

Well yea, if you have sponges on the rock it will die as the sponge absorb air, it will eventually die.
FW dips are normally used on newly cultivated LR and corals to get any hitch hikers out. A short dip for about 5-10 seconds of same temp and pH water wouldn't harm the seeding bacteria and/or coral in anyway.
That's strange for the Feathers to react that way.

 

Feather dusters seem ok now. Hopefully this mantis will become less elusive soon.

 

If he is only 3cm long that would explain why he is so elusive. At 3cm he is very low on the food chain. He is likely eating amphipods and the smallest snails, and wont venture too far away from his home.

 

Very cool find u should feed him

 

There's nothing in the tank but live rock and whatever came with that.

So I have to wait months for it to grow and get less shy? I saw reefcentral has a board dedicated to mantis. I guess Ill make a topic there.

 

They grow pretty darn quick. But yeah, the smaller they are, the more danger they are in from predators and such. So they'll naturally be shyer. As he explores and gets used to his new home, he'll get braver. Most mantis take around 2 weeks to get used to their new surroundings. I know mine did anyways, my first mantis took close to a month, but she was generally shy natured anyways.

 

very cool find have been thinking of getting one.the info hat i have picked up from reading this is very helpful.This is one of the best forums i have ever been part of.

Also i googled Mantis Shrimp Food,people over in hong kong and other places like that will eat anything.They also eat seahorses over there,they are cool but i aint eatin that thing,what is wrong with them people. JOE