Mantis shrimp hitchhiker

razorskiss · Jun 2, 2023

I spotted this tiny shrimp that rode in on some live rock in a pico tank. It's currently only about 2-3 mm across (don't know how long). There's currently a pistol shrimp and threadfin goby in the tank. At what relative size will I need to trap and remove the mantis?

jmichaelh7 · Jun 2, 2023

Are you sure it’s mantis shrimp? I thought those will kill everything and anything !

razorskiss · Jun 5, 2023

Based on the head morphology I'm pretty confident and TBS agreed based on the pictures. This specimen is tiny at the moment, the head is barely 2 mm across, so it probably won't be able to do much damage until it grows a bit, but one blue knuckle hermit has been missing for a few days.... Going to be tricky trapping it in this tiny pico tank.

Stomatopods17 · Jun 22, 2023

ideally asap.

If you wish not to kill it, isolate the rock and bait it out. Hard to ID it but it's likely N. wennerae.

Tong feed it some frozen krill or mysis, it'll eventually train to smell the frozen and go running around the tank to search for it, when its out of the hole during a feeding thats when you can block the hole and catch it out.

jabberwock · Jun 22, 2023

following

razorskiss · Jun 22, 2023

Stomatopods17 said:
ideally asap.

If you wish not to kill it, isolate the rock and bait it out. Hard to ID it but it's likely N. wennerae.

Tong feed it some frozen krill or mysis, it'll eventually train to smell the frozen and go running around the tank to search for it, when its out of the hole during a feeding thats when you can block the hole and catch it out.

I've already spun up a second tank and moved the mantis. It currently shares space with some extra hermits but it's not big enough to threaten them yet and hides deep in his rock hole whenever one of the hermits is nearby. I'll move the hermits as he grows. I've been pipette feeding it fish food pellets and frozen mysis and it takes them happily, check out my build thread here:

Build Thread - Mantis and mangrove lagoon

Got an N. wennerae off of a TBS shipment so I decided to spin up a new tank to house it. Wanted something a bit more interesting than just sand and rock so the plan is to plant some mangroves into this and create something like a coastal gulf biotope. Glass: UNS 60s Gear: Jebao SCP-90 Eheim...

www.reef2reef.com

Trying for a pseudo-bonsai mangrove shallow tank. Even if the mangroves fail, will keep it as a dedicated tank for the mantis.