Need some tips hunting a mantis shrimp

[fish]

I can hear him but I can't see him. My clean up crew is getting decimated (round 2) and I'm sure he whacked my Mandarin. I haaate him!

Seriously though, I am quite certain that I have a mantis in my tank. I can hear him constantly "tap, tap, tap". I picked up a mantis trap and baited it with cooked shrimp. So far I have caught a couple of my cleaners and chased away my peppermint but no sign of the mantis.

Does anyone have any ideas. Should I bait with raw shrimp, something else. Any thoughts on where to put the trap? On the sandbed, into the rockwork?

Help!!!!

[Ricepicker]

raw shrimp works better IMO

if u catch him, can u keep him around for me? i dunno when i will be in ottawa next, but i've been looking for a mantis for a while

[mike536]

I had a mantis in my tank from some rock I got from J&L (I think) He killed all my hermits and snails. Coolest looking thing i've ever seen. In all the same breath i'd be very surprised if it is a mantis. You have a peppermint in there as well. It's probably him clicking. My two click like crazy. To the point that I thought there was another mantis in there. It was really simple how I caught mine. He came out of the rockwork and perched on top of it's next victim. A snail. Soon as I seen hime there I grabbed a net and put it right over him. It was crazy. I never new anything about them before I caught him. Then people were telling me how they are nicknamed thumb smashers. And they have been known to swim so fast that they could go right through the side of your tank!! Something like 10 meters per second. Pretty crazy. Be careful any how.

Before I caught him I seen him one time before and I had my hand in the tank trying to coax him into a net. Gee's if I had only knew. LOL

[fish]

How loud do peppermint shrimp click? This is audible across the room with the TV on, skimmer and siphon box running (fairly noisy environment).

Do peppermint shrimp hunt snails and crabs? I had around 50 or so crabs in a 125 short with around 170lbs of rock. Used to see them all the time. Had enough snails to keep the tank in good shape. Suddenly couldn't find any crabs and there were not enough snails in the tank (despite them breeding) to keep it clean. Started looking rather fuzzy for lack of a better word.

Couple weeks ago I added 35 crabs, 15 cerith and 10 trocus. Still can find some snails and a few crabs but my population is dropping.

[fish]

Oh, and I'll keep him in my sump for you Willi but you will need to trade me for the snail population in my sump hyeah:

[mike536]

The clicking is very loud. Well as far as I'm concerned. Peppermints don't hunt snails or crabs. So you probably do have one. Do you see any "extra" shells lying around? My mantis was a deep blue. About 2" long. Really cool looking. Really easy to keep as well. When I got him out I put him in a 20 gallon. Plenty of room for him. All you need is a place for him to hide, normal output lights and a scattered mollie or something cheap. There's threads on RC about guys having cool mantis tanks. With video. The mantis attacking a snail. Really cool.

[Ricepicker]

hehe i think i can spare a few cleanup crew