Mantis Shrimp Mayhem

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Welcome to R2R!!

 

[A Toadstool Leather]

Just a saltwater fishing license in texas to keep for recreational purposes.

Must be really common to be able to catch them that easy

 

[chris85]

Must be really common to be able to catch them that easy

No thats why I was asking how and where he collects them. I do alot of collecting for my aquariums and have never been able to find one. To collect any kind of marine inhabitant you have to have at least a saltwater fishing license.

 

[Tahoe61]

Welcome. Nice to have you aboard.

 

[Jenna Bearden]

Beautiful! Not easy getting a great picture with these fast creatures. They are most intriguing to me. If I had a great setup for one I'd definitely have one! Keep up the pics!!!!

 

[inkedtx]

Another Photo & Video sample

BEAUTIFUL

 

[ritter6788]

Welcome to R2R! Glad to see you posting over here.

 

[kdragon64]

Hello

Some may already know me (from ReefCentral) most likely don't know me.

However I am a Mantis Shrimp Publicist in the form of High Quality photos and High Quality videos of which I create through a lot of time, effort and expenses, I do not use mobile phones to photograph or film my mantis shrimp but high quality camera equipment that I have purchased to specifically capture mantis shrimp in all the ways I possibly can.

It's my intent to keep all my photos / videos uploads to a specific area, a.k.a this particular thread/post itself to make it easy for anyone interested in browsing will have it all neatly in an easy to find location.

Just curious if the fine people of this small 'Invert' group within this forum would be interested in myself posting my photo and video creations specifically and solely of Mantis Shrimp?

Below are a couple of samples of my most recent works, I hope to find a friendly and accommodating community here to share my hard works with!

Excellent footage and camera work, please keep it up

 

[TheMantisman]

I have always kept a mantis in my system and I plan add one into my new system. I look forward to watching your videos.

They can be quite advantageous to have at times, I found a bobbit worm in one of my mantis aquariums but I left it in because it had created a burrow in the substrate against the front of the tank and it looked cool, but a day came where I wanted to remove it, as I dug down to its burrow I managed to get a bit of it out but it was fighting hard, next thing I know the mantis shrimp in that tank swooped in and pulled the worm out itself, beat the crap out of it and proceeded to eat it like a big strand of spaghetti

Very cool pictures and videos.....do you photograph anything else or just Mantis Shrimp?

Right now I am focusing primarily on Mantis Shrimp, every then again I do get fish like Moorish Idols but they are temporary and released after photographed/filmed. Having said that my next major build is going to incorporate a large tank for a different animal that I really want to do photography/filming with, Octopus/Cuttlefish the tank is around 3.2m long in design.

Nice! I wish i would have sprung for the full frame sensor. I shoot with a d7200, a tokina 100mm macro, and a sigma 50mm macro. I have a biocube setup right now and the curved glass is such a headache. I had to buy portholes that fit over the lens for top down shots. Getting ready to setup a 93 cube and can't wait to dig into photography with that tank.

The Nikon camera for me is a stepping stone to something much better in the not to distant future, I am talking with Hasselblad about acquiring one of their amazing cameras but they aren't cheap but their quality is second to none, I'm also in talks with RED Digital Cinema about their video cameras and I am also in talks with Vision Technology (Phantom) about one of their slow motion cameras, but we all had to start somewhere and I happened to start with a very cheap camera that I bought from K-mart nearly 10yrs ago!

Im curious what kind of permits are needed to catch a mantis shrimp. Is it just a normal fishing permit or is another permit type needed?

I think I mentioned that I am based in Indonesia at the moment and as such there are no permits needed for anything here...

Welcome to R2R! Glad to see you posting over here.

Thanks for the welcome!

So far this forum has been very accommodating as I mentioned I'm originally from ReefCentral and even though they have a dedicated Mantis Shrimp sub-forum I have found myself talking to myself more than anyone else...they no longer seem to appreciate my efforts and posts on there so I am phasing away from them and looking for a new 'home' so far I'm very happy here as its proven more engaging than the other 3 forums I also signed up to!

Excellent footage and camera work, please keep it up

Thanks for the encouraging response I certainly intend to keep on doing it and the footage itself will only get better and better with time as I learn new tricks and as I upgrade to better equipment, it is my intent to have the best photos / videos of mantis shrimp in the world!

 

[BMMMW]

Awesome pics and video!

 

[TheMantisman]

Awesome pics and video!

Thanks for the response I certainly give it my all!

 

[TheMantisman]

The only downside with what I do or more specifically where I do it (Indonesia) is that whilst I have a house on a beach here I can't stay here all year round, I can only spend 6months in Indonesia per trip and have to head back to my home country (Australia) at the end of the 6months in indonesia to get a new visa to come back.

So there are times where I don't get to post any new videos/photos for 1-2months because I am in Australia organizing to come back and unfortunately this trip is nearly over (leave on 16th June) so I'm getting as much photos / videos I can now before I leave, should be at least a dozen more videos and lots of photos before I leave in mid June.

 

[jsker]

Welcome to R2R. Passion is a plus, get photographs and nice work

 

[TheMantisman]

I've shared and spoken a little bit about the largest common smasher mantis shrimp for aquariums (Peacock Mantis - Odontodactylus Scyllarus) which get to a max size of 7inchs long, that might sound quite large for a mantis shrimp and it is one of the largest smashers...But giant spearers far exceed this size so much so that a 7inch spearer is considered a small specimen.

Currently I have had certain difficulty finding giant spearers here but they are here so I'd like to take sometime to talk about one of the largest mantis shrimp I have ever seen in my life and quite possibly the world itself.

Lysiosquillina Maculata - The Giant Zebra Spearer

Normally I have seen these individuals around 30cm / 12inchs long but for some reason and part of why I am actually here (Indonesia) is because of the sheer state of mantis shrimp here (Indonesia is considered the Mantis Shrimp capital of the world) species here found in other places just aren't as large that doesn't mean a 1foot (30cm/12inch) mantis shrimp is small....but individuals here are TWICE that size!

Here is a photo of a gargantuan individual (male) that is practically 2foot long (60cm/24inchs)...regrettably this individual didn't survive the traveling process from where it was acquired to my system, which prompted me to look closer and utilize other methods, including diving just off the reef where I live and scouring through the sand flats to look for signs, they are a lot more difficult to locate because they never leave their burrow unlike peacocks which actively forage away from their burrows.

Another interesting aspect with Giant Spearers is that they are not individual/lone predators but live a monogamous lifestyle with an opposing Gender and due to the process of evolution, they have developed what is called 'Sexual Dimorphism' in that the male & female have very different looking physically parts to them.

In the relationship Males take on board a lot of the physical day to day task, guarding the burrows entrance, hunting for himself and her, maintain the burrows walls and more, what this has done for the males is that their "Claws" (Raptorial Appendages / Dactyls) are a LOT larger than the females, also the eyes of the male are a LOT larger than the females as well.

The image below shows the "Claws" (Raptorial Appendages / Dactyls) of a Male (top) Female (below) the 2 animals that the 'claws' came from were identical in size but the size of their 'claws' alone appears to suggest something else.

 

[DeepBrew]

Welcome to R2R!

Thanks for taking the time to post the beautiful pictures, video and information about mantis shrimp. I think they are fascinating creatures.

 

[AlexG]

I have only kept smashers but I would like to try a spear at some point. Do you keep the spears in a deep sand bed 6+ inches for them to make a burrow?

 

[chefjpaul]

This is a very fascinating thread.

 

[TheMantisman]

Welcome to R2R!

Thanks for taking the time to post the beautiful pictures, video and information about mantis shrimp. I think they are fascinating creatures.

Thanks for taking the time to view the thread and I promise this is merely the beginning...my old thread on RC was over 100 pages long! I intend to break that here.

I have only kept smashers but I would like to try a spear at some point. Do you keep the spears in a deep sand bed 6+ inches for them to make a burrow?

Spearers and DSBs is an optional course, it is more natural and there is nothing wrong with it, my giant spearers back in Australia a few years ago actually had 12inch deep sand beds (the tanks were 'basically' 75% sand 25% open water). But PVC is also a good alternative and much cheaper/easier to maintain. I never had a problem with parameters either with my 12inch DSBs many people on forums suggested against it but I think that because the spearer creates a large wide 'U' shaped burrow (I could drop a tennis ball down my spearers burrows) the burrow helps get 'clean' water to the bottom of the DSB.

 

[TheMantisman]

This is a very fascinating thread.

Because they are fascinating animals!

 

[chefjpaul]

Because they are fascinating animals!

yes they are, but your passion for them is pretty inspirational.