Holy cow......6 inch mantis shrimp.

[chris l]

Last night I went to a not so LFS. Was looking around in the tanks and they had at least a 6 inch mantis shrimp for sale ($24.99). What an amazing creature. Beautiful colors. They put a large goldfish in with it and it went nuts, chasing it around the tank. It was neat to see it use it club to stun the fish and attempt to eat it.

 

[nerdy]

I would wonder why anyone would want a shrimp that would totally ruin their tank. I've heard that they actually have the potential to break the glass in tanks!

 

[grouperhead]

I would wonder why anyone would want a shrimp that would totally ruin their tank.
They are fascinating to observe in a species only tank. That's what they are sold for. Bo

 

[tyr-sog]

my buddy has a mantis in a 12 gallon eclipse. Pretty sweet and interesting to watch during feeding.

 

[chris l]

IMO they are the most colorful shrimp. Too bad you can't keep anything else with them.

 

[scuba steveo]

i thought about doing one by itself in a small eclipse
it would be pretty sweet

 

[krux]

the risks of keeping them (like the possibility of cracked glass) are in many people's eyes outweighed by their fascinationg behavior and amazing colors. difficulty of keeping something is for many people a big draw, this is the reason people keep scorpionfish and blue ringged octopus tanks...
if i had a male mantis (dont need anything carrying eggs!!) and i could figure out a way to inexpensively tee off of my main water system to feed like a 10 gallon tank to keep him, I probably would keep a species only tank as well, due to the wow factor that they have both for myself and my visitors.