My New Baby

[reef fool]

since I was unable to get my old fuge tank out from under my stand(20 gal) I finally put it to good use. Here is it's new resident. My 6" peacock mantis shrimp!!

 

[reef fool]

here's another...HE'S A MEAN SUCKER!!

 

[jrpage]

Originally posted by reef fool
here's another...HE'S A MEAN SUCKER!!
How so? I've never seen one before. It's really pretty!

 

[fireo1o]

sweet man

 

[reef fool]

Originally posted by jrpage
How so? I've never seen one before. It's really pretty!
Well, so far he has cracked a 1/4" piece of rigid acrylic(I was teasing him out for pictures) and has dusted a few ghost shrimp with his powerful smashers. UNBELIEVABLE!!! I'm afraid to open up the glass top!!

 

[karajay]

Originally posted by jrpage
How so?
Mantis shrimp are known for mass killings in the aquarium. Anything from inverts to small fish. Also strong enough to crack glass. Some people get 'em as hitch hikers. :nervous:

 

[nicky1.8t]

i want to make a mantis tank as well but one question, how do you move him when he out grows the tank?

 

[reef fool]

Originally posted by nicky1.8t
i want to make a mantis tank as well but one question, how do you move him when he out grows the tank?

VERY, VERY CAREFULLY!!!!
MAYBE WITH TONGS AND A BOILING POT OF WATER WAITING

 

[jrpage]

Yikes, I'm scared yet somehow thrilled
This thing can really crack glass? Or you're just pulling my leg Kara?
If it's so dangerous how'd you get him into your tank in the first place? Please tell me the whole story!!!
(This is almost as interesting as the thread where someone wanted to own a blue ring octopus. Nope I had no idea about them either.):nope: WHATM DRIVES YOU PEOPLE???????????
j/k
Is there any interesting reading on these bad boys?
Rhonda

 

[karajay]

jrpage - would I kid you?
Check this out...
www.blueboard.com/mantis/

 

[synyster11]

Did you buy that or get it as a freebee with your LR? I want one just like that. Looks killer!!!! Have you seen the coral special that the discovery channel plays. There is a segment on the mantis and they show this huge zebra one. Look amazing!!!
I am jealous..

 

[jrpage]

that was cool! Thanks Kara! I'm still impressed at it's beauty and yet strangely repelled by it's strength. I think it's cause I paid too much for my tank - wanna keep it intact ya know

 

[007]

I have always wondered how you get the thing from store to tank . . . obviously a bag ain't gonna work. How'd ya do it?

 

[bacchus_fl]

They are very impressive little creatures when you see the damage they can inflict at such a small size. You are the first person I have ever heard of though that actually purchased one to keep.
I have had two as hitch hikers. One in each of my saltwater tanks. The first one was in my reef tank when I first started this hobby. The tank is located right behind my dinning room table and I kept hearing this strange clicking sound coming from the tank at night and never could figure out what it was. Then over the next month or so I had 3 fish go missing but all my test showed the water was perfect. Then one day I heard the clicking again and finally saw the route of my problems, a 3" green mantias shrimp popping away at one of my emrald crabs. It took me damn near 2 weeks to get that little *$@%^* out of my tank. In the end he killed 4 fish, I small clam, and countless crabs.
The second one was also a hitch hiker who came in on some live rock I used to set up my predator tank. Only this time just minutes after the rock went in the tank he swam out of his hole and was spotted by my trigger fish and a very large lunar wrasse. Oh the sweet revenge I felt watching that sucker get chased all over the tank and eaten for dinner.
Sorry man I think they are really cool animals, especially in a secluded enviroment like you have yours but they can rack up a hefty death (and $$$) toll real quick in a reef tank. And those things are nearly impossible to remove from a larger tank with lots of rocks.

 

[black99l]

we used to have a little mantis shrimp in a little 2gallon hex tank. he was pretty cool. i would like to get another one someday. he is a really good lucking shrimp, good luck with him.

 

[tru conch]

nice peacock mantis! good luck with him, and you are right, the are nasty suckers. i learned the hard way as a kid, i had my thumb split open by one.

 

[jrpage]

Originally posted by tru conch
nice peacock mantis! good luck with him, and you are right, the are nasty suckers. i learned the hard way as a kid, i had my thumb split open by one.
What happened? Did you try to pick it up?

 

[kahnsell]

A few months ago, the Shedd Aquarium found one in their oldest reef tank. Needless to say, they couldn't get the thing out and he devastated the whole tank!!! Not fun. But he does look tasty..

 

[reef fool]

Sorry guys, for not replying. My Optimum Online crapped out again. Just got it fixed this AM.
I actually bought him at the LFS! Our local wholesaler apparently got in a bunch of these huge peacocks. My LFS bought 2 of them and this was actually the smaller of the two.
Transfering him was not a problem. I brought a plastic bucket. The LFS owner made me net him! I brought him home, acclimated him, and flipped him in with a net. He immediately started building his new home. He dug into the sand under a rock, grabbed a few pices of rubble and a snail shell and he was livin' large

So far I have fed him krill and a live ghost shrimp. He takes the krill very gently out of a piece of rigid acrylic tubing. The ghost shrimp, on the other hand, was carnage. I flipped him in and he went to hide under the rock with the mantis. With a loud crack!!! it was over in seconds.

 

[new_noob]

*smiles* cool, i hope i dont get one when i get my live rock, i always have to be moving around the rocks or the sand or my filteration, but if one comes along with the rock, im chaining that tank up, lol