Mantis Shrimp Finally Captured

broomer5

broomer5

Active Member
Well, after at least a year and a half, I finally caught the mantis.
Last night after feeding the tank, it came out of hiding.
It appeared a little bolder than most other times I saw it, and this time it was at the other end of the tank.
I snapped several pics - none of them too good - but here's the best I could do. You can just see it's eyes and antennas ( or whatever you call them ) under the rock in this picture.
After taking a flash photo, it shot over to a small, fist size piece of live rock, and backed into a small hole.
I reached in, grabbed the rock and tossed it into a bucket.
It had now backed down even further into the rock, but I could still see it with a flashlight.
Tried to get it out of the hole with high salinity saltwater, then freshwater, then some tonic water seltzer - but the little guy would not budge.
Please don't ask me about it's unfortunate ultimate fate.
We'll just say it's no longer in the tank, or threat to my other tankmates.
 
phoenixrising

phoenixrising

Member
I buy alot of uncured liverock and therefore have had to deal with mantis shrimp regularly. I kinda like the little buggers. They're really quite pretty to look at and as long as you have a spare tank to keep them in they may not be such a problem. Any time I find one, it goes into the refugium where it is welcome to hang out. Course if you don't have a spare tank or if you end up with several of them, they're a real problem. GETTING it to the refugium is always a pain in the rump requiring middle of the night forays into the reef.
 
broomer5

broomer5

Active Member
It was a smasher ...
Took out multiple emerald crabs, cleaner and peppermint shrimp ...
My Royal Gramma of 2 years went missing a couple weeks ago, may not have been the mantis though ...
Mantis was banging on the inner overflow box the other day ...
I considered it a nuisance, a pest, a killer of my clean-up crew.
 
hnf2k

hnf2k

Active Member
i wanna know how you killed him. and does anybody know where i could order one? and would a 10 gallon tank with 10 pounds of live rock and some live sand be an ok setup for one?
 
fshhub

fshhub

Active Member
great set up
and as k around here, maybe start a thread saying you are looking for one, someone will probably come out and give one to you
another alternative is to check out some stores, saltwaterfish.com had one at one time, I do not know if they still do or actually carry them regularly though.
PS congrats broomer;)
 
hnf2k

hnf2k

Active Member
no wet/dry or anything needed? and could i just take like a piece of live rock and some water out of my main tank?
 
phoenixrising

phoenixrising

Member
They're remarkably hardy little fellas and resilient beyond belief. Use live rock and sand and water from your tank. Not sure about the need for filtration as mine is part of the reef system, but suspect that some type of filtration and water movement would be necessary. Just plumb it into your reef system. Feed it almost anything. Mine eats whatever is on the menu for the reef, usually krill or squid or mysis or silversides or shrimp...something along that line.
Naturally, you won't want to keep anything else in the tank with Mr. Mantis...he WILL eat it!
 
hnf2k

hnf2k

Active Member
into my regular system? so should i make something more out of it than just a mantis shrimp tank? is a 10 gallon tank sufficient or should i get bigger? i think i probably have a spare 10 gallon tank, but someone said i should get acrylic. should i?
 
phoenixrising

phoenixrising

Member
Mine is in a 55 gal glass tank which I use for a refugium. I have never had any mantis break the glass nor do I know of anyone personally who has had this happen. Perhaps it is a myth??
I would not house any other critters with your mantis because he is likely to kill them if the opportunity presents itself. But you could maybe plumb a bit larger tank to your reef system and make a refugium out of it. This would help your reef in many ways and also give your mantis buddy a safe comfy place to hang out. A word to the wise though...COVER YOUR OVERFLOW! I had one explore the overflow and managed to get sucked through the J tube, down the hose straight onto the trickle plate on my filter where I came close to having my fingers become snack fare for him when I went to pull out the filter pad to clean it. There he was larger than life with his big florescent green self right next to the hand I had carelessly plunged into the filter without a thought. Won't do that again!:D
 
hnf2k

hnf2k

Active Member
broomer, stop avoiding the inevitable. im very annoying and persistent. now how did you kill your mantis shrimp?
 
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