krisfal
Well-known member
So ladies, do you despair of ever getting your husband or significant other to share your passion for your reef? Well I have the cure! Get a mantis shrimp!?!
The other night while watching my tank I suddenly notice some eyes sticking up out of a hole in the rock. Closer inspection quickly confirmed my initial thought, there is a mantis shrimp in my tank. So I set up a trap and left it overnight, no luck. In the morning I told the hubby and son about the shrimp and told them it has to go! No way do I want it to make the transfer to the new tank. So I made a spear out of a big needle and a bamboo skewer attached to a handle from an old algae scraper (for added length) and gave it to them. At first reluctant to try to stab the shrimp (they thought it was cool) they soon became enthralled with the challenge! They spent hours trying to skewer the shrimp to no avail. They can get it to consistently come out and stab at a second skewer they used but they could not even come close to stabbing it. The only thing that has changed is the shrimp is now sure to cover his whole when he is inside. I put fresh bait in the trap overnight again, still no luck.
Although it is nice to have some genuine interest at home in my hobby does anybody have any other suggestions? The rock he is in has at least 5 corals frags on it so I am reluctant to remove them so I can isolate the rock for drastic treatment, but will do as a latch ditch effort. So I have about 4 days to try to catch this guy.
Warning: Ladies if you should choose this tactic to improve the interest of your co-habitants, please be alert to the fact there may be easier prey in your tank. At one point I overheard the statement "that hippo tang sure would be easy to spear" (my normally "hide and play dead" at the slightest disturbance tang decided that a bamboo skewer was a threat worth challenging and was attacking the stick) I had to come in and firmly state some ground rules!
The other night while watching my tank I suddenly notice some eyes sticking up out of a hole in the rock. Closer inspection quickly confirmed my initial thought, there is a mantis shrimp in my tank. So I set up a trap and left it overnight, no luck. In the morning I told the hubby and son about the shrimp and told them it has to go! No way do I want it to make the transfer to the new tank. So I made a spear out of a big needle and a bamboo skewer attached to a handle from an old algae scraper (for added length) and gave it to them. At first reluctant to try to stab the shrimp (they thought it was cool) they soon became enthralled with the challenge! They spent hours trying to skewer the shrimp to no avail. They can get it to consistently come out and stab at a second skewer they used but they could not even come close to stabbing it. The only thing that has changed is the shrimp is now sure to cover his whole when he is inside. I put fresh bait in the trap overnight again, still no luck.
Although it is nice to have some genuine interest at home in my hobby does anybody have any other suggestions? The rock he is in has at least 5 corals frags on it so I am reluctant to remove them so I can isolate the rock for drastic treatment, but will do as a latch ditch effort. So I have about 4 days to try to catch this guy.
Warning: Ladies if you should choose this tactic to improve the interest of your co-habitants, please be alert to the fact there may be easier prey in your tank. At one point I overheard the statement "that hippo tang sure would be easy to spear" (my normally "hide and play dead" at the slightest disturbance tang decided that a bamboo skewer was a threat worth challenging and was attacking the stick) I had to come in and firmly state some ground rules!
.....j/k 
