The Mantis Shrimp Guide Thread

[demaria36]

bump........ anybody have a suggestion

[Koshmar]

I've got a suggestion but I'm not Travis. Anyway, I would go for a N. wennerae. They are common, quite active will change colors to fit their surroundings. I love mine, he's always out and about, comical also. Today he kept smacking the screen divider trying to get at a snail that was on the other side. He finally gave up and went for one on his side instead. Little moments like that just make you smile....

[travisurfer]

Here's a question Travis: I'm emptying out a 12g aquapod and will have everything I need (established liverock and sand) to add a mantis shrimp - so what I'm getting at is, what kind should I look for (I would prefer active and attractive)?

Thanks

N. wennerae is your best bet as far as activity and availability are concerned; however, G. smithi would also be an exceptional choice as well. In general, it always seems best to recommend N. wennerae because they are active and so easily available from tampabaysaltwater and sealifeinc. HTH.

[Nanobuds]

Awesome Post

 

I've always been to scared too scared to keep a mantis because I fear that it would grow up smash through its tank crawl away and kill me while I sleep. Seriously

 

ROFL LOL

 

[RLC]

We thought we would add a pic of our Mantis. We keep him in a 29 gallon. We feed him a red claw crab once a week and give him some krill once a week. He has been such a joy to watch. We got him about 8 months ago and couldn't be happier. We have really enjoyed reading this post.

 

He is about 3 fingers thick and about 4 1/2 to 6 inches long. If anyone wants to come over and get a exact measurement be my guest.

[AquariKeeper]

^ Drop dead gorgeous stupid coral, I want one o' dem ^! lol, jk, but that's an incredible pic

[DrCooper]

Saw an all yellow spearing mantis, not sure exact species? ANYONE?

 

 

i plan to purchase him cause I really love to set up a mantis tank

[danktank]

Mantis are beautiful. Here are some photos I took when I went diving in Indonesia. Some of the Mantis were between 6" to 8" long. Some of them were carrying eggs.

I just started a 14g tank and I hope I would not end up with a mantis, because I would like to have all kinds of critters and I would not want to harm any of them, including the mantis.

THATS AMAZING

[j5c077]

Awesome Post

 

I've always been to scared too scared to keep a mantis because I fear that it would grow up smash through its tank crawl away and kill me while I sleep. Seriously

 

agreed

they give me nightmares

[Jelly]

Saw an all yellow spearing mantis, not sure exact species? ANYONE?

 

 

i plan to purchase him cause I really love to set up a mantis tank

 

Pseudosquilla ciliata, I have one. Great to watch hunt down shrimp.

[mdavis203]

 

He's gorgeous. What kind is that?

 

Hilarious

of a mantis. Any of you guys tried this? Edited March 18, 2009 by mdavis203

[travisurfer]

Wow, that is interesting to say the least. I'm not really sure about the ethics behind something like that, but it was....interesting...

[mdavis203]

Hehe... I wouldnt' think it would be any more unethical than dragging a string on the floor for my cats to chase. But maybe that's just me... I was definitely interesting, though.

 

BTW, does anyone have the ID on that mantis?

[MolokoPlus]

I got my rock from TBS and the clicking is driving me crazy. I get my CUC monday or tuesday with the rest of my rock. I also ended up with about 6 gorilla crabs. I got the big one and 2 small ones but they are so shy its difficult to get em. I'd love to have the mantis kill the gorrillas but not sure if it will happen. Ive had the rock in the tank and it is cycled but I cannot pin down where this or these mantis shrimp are. considering making a 20oz bottle trap but have had mixed feedback on the success this brings. My fear is its gonna go through my CUC in no time. Id love to be able to keep him or them but I cant afford to go buy 34 blue hermits the snails and such ever few months. And my biggest fear is that he may burrow into the sand and break the glass. I work nights so sitting around with a flashlight is impossible.

 

 

I also got a purple sea urchin about the size of a golf ball. I have alot of live barnacles on my rock and heard they eat em. Do I move my urchin to my 14g biocube since there are no barnacles in there? do they eat corraline? what do i have to worry about with the urchin if anyone has experience keeping them.

 

The upside is I got 7 cowries 4 various sized porcelain crab and a load of other "good hitchhikers" but theres the problem again I dont want em all dead because of a mantis.

 

I do wish I could keep the mantis they are fascinating but im scared to not get em out of there. I hope they show up soon i have no idea which rock or rocks the clicking is coming from.

Edited March 20, 2009 by MolokoPlus

[travisurfer]

I got my rock from TBS and the clicking is driving me crazy. I get my CUC monday or tuesday with the rest of my rock. I also ended up with about 6 gorilla crabs. I got the big one and 2 small ones but they are so shy its difficult to get em. I'd love to have the mantis kill the gorrillas but not sure if it will happen. Ive had the rock in the tank and it is cycled but I cannot pin down where this or these mantis shrimp are. considering making a 20oz bottle trap but have had mixed feedback on the success this brings. My fear is its gonna go through my CUC in no time. Id love to be able to keep him or them but I cant afford to go buy 34 blue hermits the snails and such ever few months. And my biggest fear is that he may burrow into the sand and break the glass. I work nights so sitting around with a flashlight is impossible.

 

 

I also got a purple sea urchin about the size of a golf ball. I have alot of live barnacles on my rock and heard they eat em. Do I move my urchin to my 14g biocube since there are no barnacles in there? do they eat corraline? what do i have to worry about with the urchin if anyone has experience keeping them.

 

The upside is I got 7 cowries 4 various sized porcelain crab and a load of other "good hitchhikers" but theres the problem again I dont want em all dead because of a mantis.

 

I do wish I could keep the mantis they are fascinating but im scared to not get em out of there. I hope they show up soon i have no idea which rock or rocks the clicking is coming from.

Odds are extremely small that the mantis will break the glass- the mantis would have to be HUGE and the glass thin. There are very few cases of mantids breaking glass tanks because they were kept in tanks that were too small and thus had thin glass. This part I would not worry about.

 

If it is a mantis, could also be a pistol shrimp, doesn't mean that it will destroy everything. You really just have to decide if you want to keep him or not. If you put some shrimp on the end of a skewer you can bait him out to see where he's hiding. If you are really that worried about the CUC, don't buy the CUC until you get rid of the mantis. Even then, if you keep him will fed with shrimp, he won't just go around killing everything. HTH.

[seahorsedreams]

BTW, does anyone have the ID on that mantis?

 

That's a G. platysoma.

 

My Ciliata

 

Our Peacock

[Koshmar]

That second pic with the snail is awesome! You should photoshop the snail shell into a pic of the earth with the mantis gazing toward the camera.

[travisurfer]

wow, that is an awesome angle

[zjharva]

Hey i got a mantis on my sealifinc. rock. As i was unwrapping it from newspaper,it was sitting right there. I thought it was dead, but when i poked it it was alive. So i threw it in the tank, and he laid there moving his frills under his body a bit. He went off into the rock, and perked up a bit. It is a small brown with other cool colors spearer. Do you think it will survive the cycle? Also, i was planning on getting rid of it later.

Edited April 9, 2009 by zjharva

[Koshmar]

Give it to a lfs or sell it. Don't allow it to suffer through a cycle. People will buy it from you.

[Shady1984slm]

I am perplexed, can someone with experience keeping peacock mantis chime in please?

 

I had a 20long setup for about 2 months (cycle finished under 1 month). I had about 40lbs live sand and about 20-25 lr rubble.

 

Also had a vareity of macro algae in tank. Anyway I finally added a peacock mantis about two weeks ago.

He has been eating great and really active. Last night he finally attacked a large turbo snail that had been in the tank with him for the past two weeks. He never bothered before. He was hammering all night on this snail to at least 2am (which is when I fell asleep). When I get up at 7 am to go to work I go in and my peacock is dead. He was laying out in the open on his back?? I don't understand what happened.

 

All my levels were in check (Ammonia 0, Nitrite O, even Nitrates were undetectable using salifert test kits).

 

So basically between being very active at 2 am (hammering away at snail) and and 7 am he suddenly died, just doesn't make sense to me. No chemicals or anything have been around the tank, not in room either.

 

I read that most peacocks die when they molt, but he hadn't showed any signs of molting.

 

Can they die because of overfeeding?

 

Thanks

[travisurfer]

Hey i got a mantis on my sealifinc. rock. As i was unwrapping it from newspaper,it was sitting right there. I thought it was dead, but when i poked it it was alive. So i threw it in the tank, and he laid there moving his frills under his body a bit. He went off into the rock, and perked up a bit. It is a small brown with other cool colors spearer. Do you think it will survive the cycle? Also, i was planning on getting rid of it later.

Mantids are incredibly hardy but I wouldn't intentionally put them through a cycle. If you plan to get rid of him, I'd find someone who could take him from you before the cycle.

 

I am perplexed, can someone with experience keeping peacock mantis chime in please?

 

I had a 20long setup for about 2 months (cycle finished under 1 month). I had about 40lbs live sand and about 20-25 lr rubble.

 

Also had a vareity of macro algae in tank. Anyway I finally added a peacock mantis about two weeks ago.

He has been eating great and really active. Last night he finally attacked a large turbo snail that had been in the tank with him for the past two weeks. He never bothered before. He was hammering all night on this snail to at least 2am (which is when I fell asleep). When I get up at 7 am to go to work I go in and my peacock is dead. He was laying out in the open on his back?? I don't understand what happened.

 

All my levels were in check (Ammonia 0, Nitrite O, even Nitrates were undetectable using salifert test kits).

 

So basically between being very active at 2 am (hammering away at snail) and and 7 am he suddenly died, just doesn't make sense to me. No chemicals or anything have been around the tank, not in room either.

 

I read that most peacocks die when they molt, but he hadn't showed any signs of molting.

 

Can they die because of overfeeding?

 

Thanks

This sounds odd. Are there any other possible predators in the tank? You said that there were absolutely no signs of molting. Were there any signs of shell disease? What have you been feeding it? Mantids are sensitive to aerosols and other chemicals- did you spray anything in the room that the tank is in?

[Shady1984slm]

I am perplexed, can someone with experience keeping peacock mantis chime in please?

 

I had a 20long setup for about 2 months (cycle finished under 1 month). I had about 40lbs live sand and about 20-25 lr rubble.

 

Also had a vareity of macro algae in tank. Anyway I finally added a peacock mantis about two weeks ago.

He has been eating great and really active. Last night he finally attacked a large turbo snail that had been in the tank with him for the past two weeks. He never bothered before. He was hammering all night on this snail to at least 2am (which is when I fell asleep). When I get up at 7 am to go to work I go in and my peacock is dead. He was laying out in the open on his back?? I don't understand what happened.

 

All my levels were in check (Ammonia 0, Nitrite O, even Nitrates were undetectable using salifert test kits).

 

So basically between being very active at 2 am (hammering away at snail) and and 7 am he suddenly died, just doesn't make sense to me. No chemicals or anything have been around the tank, not in room either.

 

I read that most peacocks die when they molt, but he hadn't showed any signs of molting.

 

Can they die because of overfeeding?

 

Thanks

 

I found a post on stomatopod.com forums in which a guys description fits the description I described above.

Anyone else ever have this happen?

 

http://www.stomatopod.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=258

[zjharva]

I figured out what mine is!

He is a Neogonodactylus wennerae and he hitchhiked from my sea life inc. live rock. When i found him barely alive on the newspaper, he was brown. Now that he actually came out from the live rock, i can see that he has nice colors with little dots. His little gill things underneath are blue. He has great personality and is very active.

he has a weird habit of curling around in a ball

[captainbastard]

hi, new here! I just started a 10g salt water mantis shrimp aquarium. I have had a 30g freshwater for a while and always thought these guys were cool so i finally got one. Ive had him for a couple days and he seems quite friendly but i have not once heard any popping sounds. I know for sure that he is a smasher, I do trust the local fish place. Not quite sure how to place the live rock either, and i have seen others use pvc pipe as a hideout for theirs. Any info would be great!

 

ps, mine curls up like a ball quite often too. he looks so cute like that!