aiptasia,mantis shrimp,crabs(gorilla crabs said lady at lfs) and honeycomb gum?

**Isaac** · 09-09-2010, 10:47 PM

Yes my first time ever attempting salt water after 5 yrs of the nice still wAters of the fresh and I find my self in a ufc ring.... It's friggin awsome i don't want to use any chemicals what so ever if the mantis dosnt go for the bait tonight I have a nice pair of needle nose plyers to handle him accordingly and for the rest of them any suggestions on there natural enemies would be much appreciated as I would like only natural events to occur, but if indeed this all fails I will kamikaze the salt lvls if any one thinks there's a better way let me no? Thanks for all the great addvice so far from everyone

**techguy** · 09-10-2010, 12:14 AM

If you don't want to use joes juice for the aiptasia you could try peppermint shrimp. Be sure to get actual peppermint shrimp (Lysmata wurdemanni) as there are other species sold as peppermint that do not eat aiptasia.

As for the the others I'm not sure. Trap or manually pull the Mantis and Gorilla Crab(s).

**CarmieJo** · 09-11-2010, 01:56 AM

The mantis is a pretty efficient predator. Maybe a big trigger might eat them but I would not count on it. Traps are your best bet.

**Rostr02** · 09-11-2010, 07:53 PM

I would trap them, just watch placing your hand around the rockwork

**mpcolson** · 09-11-2010, 10:16 PM

I had a nasty crab in my tank that I though was a cool hitch hiker. He turned out to be a snail eating SOB. I tried the trap thing. To no avail. Finally I just accepted my tank was in infancy and that I could remove all the hitch hikers in the live rock NOW rather than wait to discover something was in there after I spent a year getting a reef started.

So I methodically removed each rock and set it out paying close attention to scurrying critters. I was successful in removal of a half dozen crabs and I caught the main culprit in a cup. I was really surprised how many tiny crabs were in the tank.

I have read since doing this that you can get hitch hikers out of live rock by dunking it in club soda. I was reading a vendor's site on curing and they suggest you take the uncured rock and place it in club soda for 5 minutes to force critters to die off or run out of the rock. Don't know how well it works but you might try it.

Also when you do remove the rocks wear gloves, there are things growing on and in your rock that can really light you up. Bristle worms for one. They have nasty thorns that are painful. if nothing else at least get a pair of heavy latex gloves when handling your rock.

here is a pic of the snail eating SOB I had in my tank May He Rest In Peace

Photo taken by I-Phone

**Isaac** · 09-11-2010, 10:58 PM

haha he looks awsome matt at least he dosnt look like this mantis thats in my tank, so when you took your rock out did u put it in salt water or did u leave it in air, my biggest fear right now is damaging bacteria on the rock, and for some reason since my algie bloom i havent seen any little crabs unless the mantis decided to clean house lol

**CarmieJo** · 09-11-2010, 11:33 PM

It is much more likely that the mantis ate the crabs than the algae killed them. There is plenty of bacteria on your rocks. Some will surely die when you take rocks out of the water but their doubling time is so short that you don't really have much to worry about on a tank that is still in the initial cycle.

**Rostr02** · 09-12-2010, 09:56 AM

If you don't get that mantis out you may as well kiss all of your other livestock that you plan on putting in goodbye. If you are taking the rock out again just be real careful where you place your fingers.

**mpcolson** · 09-12-2010, 10:52 AM

+1 to Carmie and Rostr02

What ever loss of bacteria you have will quickly be replaced. What I did was set the rocks out on a tub lid I had. This served a dual purpose. It was clean so the water didn't run all over. But it allowed me to watch for things running out. That's where I caught some of the crabs I didn't know about.

I just happened to have that lid because it fits my kids toy box. You can buy the tub at Wal-Mart for around $20.00.

As far as the rock being damaged, in reality it wasn't exposed to air as long a low tide period and certainly not getting a blast of direct sunlight that goes along with that. So I don't believe there's that big of an issue. After all, live rock is shipped all over the world drier than I allowed it to get.

It sounds like you have the muther of all bad hitch hikers in you tank so I hope you just look big picture here and realize an extra week cycling is really not a big deal.

Watch your fingers and good luck,

**Isaac** · 09-12-2010, 08:30 PM

haha ya i dont no but i cant see any crabs in there at all and i think there was more then one mantis in my tank because theres another crop circle in the sand around were the first one i caught used to go

**Rostr02** · 09-12-2010, 09:34 PM

Sounds like you have your work cut out for you.

**Isaac** · 09-12-2010, 09:37 PM

i realy underestimated how much work salt realy was, but in the long run im sure it will pay off

**mpcolson** · 09-12-2010, 10:00 PM

I'm telling ya, tear it down. Take your loses and get all those varmints out of there.

Sucks but it's easier now than 6 months from now.

**CarmieJo** · 09-13-2010, 12:21 AM

It is work, especially in the beginning but you are saving yourself time down the road!

**saxman** · 09-14-2010, 07:41 PM

A good way to get a lot a 'hikers out of your LR is to give it a 10 min hypersalinity bath (SG 1.040). It's easier on the LR than club soda and most critters will vacate the rock. At that point, you simply return whatever critters you want to keep to the DT.

As for the mantis, they make really cool pets, so consider keeping it in your sump or setting up another tank for it.