New to keeping (?) a mantis shrimp

[Ron Reefman]

I just got back from a 3 day trip to snorkel the near shore reef flats in the Middle Keys. I always see, and always VERY briefly, small mantis shrimp when I do a little collecting. This time I picked up a rock and the shrimp stayed with the rock for a few seconds and then let go. They aren't very good swimmers and it was quite easy to collect.



Can anybody tell me more about this guy? It is currently in a 5g holding tank with some of the other things I collected and he doesn't seem to be a problem... so far. Anybody know what it eats? BTW, I've downsized from a 90g reef which I just sold with all my old livestock and started a new 16g rimless nano. I have a few corals I bought recently. And now the CUC I collected in the Keys. I don't plan on any fish, but 1 small algae eater may make it into the tank at some point in the future. Right now I'm interested in finding out more about this mantis shrimp.

I will have a big write up of this trip with lots of photos posted in my old 'Snorkeling and Collecting' thread, here is a link:

Snorkeling & Collecting Discussion Group

Hello and welcome to what I hope will be an interesting and useful forum for talking about snorkeling and collecting of wild marine animals. I live in Florida and I’m able to go snorkeling in the Florida Keys several times a year. But I by no means want to limit this to just my snorkeling here...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[fishguy242]

@dvgyfresh ,tips ??

 

[dvgyfresh]

Hey nice mantis !! I have a red one from the gulf and they love to eat mysis shrimp , you can get him turkey baster trained by feeding him with it . Mine doesn’t bother any hermits / snails / fish as long as I keep him fed, comes out daily to catch mysis as well

 

[MoreReef]

Actually asked the guy at the fish store about one. Said atleast 10 acrylic... since it could smash glass.

 

[dvgyfresh]

Actually asked the guy at the fish store about one. Said atleast 10 acrylic... since it could smash glass.

Maybe if it’s a peacock , most mantis will be fine

 

[MoreReef]

Maybe if it’s a peacock , most mantis will be fine

Wouldn't know... now I do. So there's several species?

 

[dvgyfresh]

Wouldn't know... now I do. So there's several species?

There’s so many species and each with different ways to kill lol , speakers, punchers lol

 

[MoreReef]

There’s so many species and each with different ways to kill lol , speakers, punchers lol

Yeah no... they look Rad though.

 

[Hadla]

n_oerstedii

 

[Ron Reefman]

Thanks for helping me out here. My guy is in a 5g holding tank with lots of other livestock. So far, I haven't seen any issues. I intend to start moving some of the new collection into my 16g nano tank today (astrea, cerith & nerite snails, chitons, a gorgonian and a sea star...). The mantis will stay in the holding tank for the time being, and there will still be lots of 'extra' livestock in the holding tank as well.

 

[Hadla]

Just remember the temperament of each mantis is different! Some might feel too shy to be out around anything else moving in the tank even though they could kill it! Just a thought if you don’t see him much others won’t tolerate anything living and will punch or move things to his liking haha, people have complained about mantises rearranging corals, etc

 

[Ron Reefman]

Well, so far it had been 5 days in a 5g holding tank with no sand and just a few rocks. I have only found one dead limpet and I can't really blame that on the mantis.

I'm in the process of moving various critters from the holding tank to the 16g DT. It will probably be another 5 days or more before I get everything I want moved. Then I'll offer up the left overs to other local reefers for free.