Mantis Shrimp, friend or foe?

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cybercron

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
Jun 3, 2003
Messages
86
Location
Colorado Springs, CO
I purchased around 40#'s of live rock from liverocks.com in April. In the first few weeks after adding the rock I noticed my flame goby was missing. I assumed the addition of the liverock stressed him out and the crabs ate him. Anyway, the past few nights while I have been feeding my fish I noticed a newcomer. I have a mantis shrimp alright! It is just over an inch long with purple forceps. It is really a cool looking creature, very colorful. When I feed my fish it eats with them, scurrying around picking up the scraps that fall on the rock. This creature has been in my tank for almost four months without causing any further damage.

Am I playing Russian roulette by leaving it in my tank?

What should I do?

Thanks
 
cybercron said:
Am I playing Russian roulette by leaving it in my tank?

What should I do?

Thanks

IMO, yes you are. Mantis shrimp will eat pretty much anything they can catch/kill. Most people who choose to keep them house them in a species only tank. At 1" your mantis probably isn't a huge threat to large fish but he will only get bigger and meaner :twisted:
 
Thanks for the advice. I chose to err on the side of caution. I removed the mantis shrimp from my tank. unfortunately he did not survive the capture process (freshwater dip).

I was hoping to keep him in a nano cube.

Anyway, thanks again.
 
I found the easiest way is to pull the rock it is in out of the tank and put it in a rubbermaid container or bucket. Tilt the container so the rock stays dry and a pool forms at the bottom of the container by useing a turkey baster to lightly spray water from your tank on the stuff you want to keep wet every minute or so. The shrimp will jump out in about 5-10 minutes and go to the pool of water. Worked with the 3 mantis in my tank and I am just waiting for my last 1 to show its face so I can get him also.
 
If you were to keep the mantis in a separate tank, what else could be housed with it? And what would you feed it?
 
Tyger,

Mantis are a fascinating creature (obviously I'm a little biased). There are unfortunately a lot of myths about them on the internet. It's myth that the mantis shrimp that came with your live stock will destroy your system. In almost every case, rock hitchhikers are smasher as opposed to spearer type species who's max size is about 3 inches. Their primary prey are small crustaceans, snails and mollusks, not your prized Angelfish. Small hitchhiker stomatopods of 1" will take about 2 years to grow to any size threatening to any animals larger than hermits and snails, giving you plenty of opportunity to trap it. Smasher type mantis can grab a small fish but they would prefer hermits and snails. I know of a number of people who keep fish as well as soft corals in their mantis nano.



There are also no documented cases of receiving potentially "tank-breaking" O. Scyllarus, G. Chiragra, G. Platysoma or H. Californiensis as hitchhikers. Those are the only 4 species who can do it and they can only do it when they get larger. The O.s. (peacock mantis) is often available for sale mainly because they often leave their den and wander across sand flats where it is easier for divers to collect them.

Mine like frozen cocktail shrimp (thawed and rinsed well obviously) and formula one on occassion. I've never heard of a problem feeding a mantis shrimp unless it was overfed, ill or preparing to molt. Our pet currently gets pieces of tiger prawn, which divided came out to be about 20 good-sized meal chunks. I'm going to vary the diet using as much fresh seafood as I can including, shrimp, squid, scallops, clams, mussels, fish, etc. Maybe even a tiny bit of fresh Abalone. I have read of them being lazy after being fed lots of shelled prepared foods that they may hesitate to break open food if they can help it. One thing to note is that smashers will sometimes lose their "clubs" if they're not used over time, so it's a good idea if you can, to occasionally feed them whole clams, mussels, crabs or snails in the shell. Also freeze-dried krill are a great media to absorb liquid vitamin supplements. Something I've read that was really interesting was that in studies, Mantises would selectively choose food for the most food benefit that can be opened by the least number of strikes. It seems they're smart enough to plan their diet and energy usage.

http://blueboard.rimlife.com/mantis/
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/aquarius/
 
Well, that makes them seem slightly less evil. lol j/k
I think I still have a very very small one in my rock somewhere.
Knowing it'll take a couple years for him to grow to a larger size is comforting.
Thanks for the info.
 
I also got one in my tank. He is very small, less than a half inch. I have seen it twice since purchasing some rock about a month ago. Right now he don't look menacing at all. I think I will wait and see on this. Thanks for the insight on the Mantis Shrimp MantisFreak..I think I will do a little more research on this critter myself.

Mike
 
Do mantis shrimp usually show up on a particular "type" of live rock? (EG - Is Fiji rock more/less likely than Gulf rock to have mantis on board?, etc)
 
My manis jumped for it when I dipped his rock in regular aquarium water. I just repeated plunged the rock in and out of the water until he had enough.

He is definately a smasher, not a spearer. He was living in the tank until I watched him attack a gobi that I added to the tank. He went straight after him! ..so out he came.

..now he lives in a 2.5 gallon all by himself.
 
hmmmmmmmmm I still think I may have a mantis, after a small three spotted domino damsel fish disappeared and 4 hermit crabs have been eaten im still waiting to see.
 
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