Any one here have a Mantis Shrimp?

[curtismaximus]

Trying to get some info and experience on the infamous Mantis Shrimp. My wife shut down the nano tank idea so i am thinking I might convert my refugium into a Fuge/Mantis area. My Fuge area is a little over 15 gal and is BB at the moment. (Well actually it has detritus as a substrate as of right now!) I have a ton of dry rock, a little live rock, a bunch of rubble, Cheato and other micro algae in the Fuge. I am sure I would need to add some sand and im not sure if that is ok or not? Is there a Mantis that will stay small enough to keep in about 15gals? I dont want to have to buy another tank if it gets to big for the Fuge! Any info will be appreicated!

 

[ripped tide]

Hey Curt,

I've kept mantis in the past, and there are quite a few species that stay very small. The difficult part is finding them. They usually aren't as ornamentally colored as a peacock, but they can be found with some interesting characteristics.

RC has a pretty good mantis shrimp forum. Check em out.

 

[curtismaximus]

Ripped Tide;875632 wrote: Hey Curt,

I've kept mantis in the past, and there are quite a few species that stay very small. The difficult part is finding them. They usually aren't as ornamentally colored as a peacock, but they can be found with some interesting characteristics.

RC has a pretty good mantis shrimp forum. Check em out.

Thanks Mr President...Sir! :shades:

I am about five pages deep on their Mantis Club page. Some good info there. Bimmerman at Blue Planet said he can order a few if a decided to pull the trigger. Just not sure which one to get! I definitely want a slasher and not a smasher!!! What about adding dry sand to a BB fuge? Are there any specific thing I would need to put in there to make the Mantis comfortable? Maybe some PVC?

 

[jennm]

We kept one about 2-3" for about 6 years. She (?) was cool. Bright green and quite a character. We had her in a little hex tank on the back counter. We were sad when she passed, but 6 years is a decent run, considering we didn't know how old she was when we got her.

Ours just had a little cave made of small pieces of live rock. When we'd drop food in, she'd look around to make sure the coast was clear, then dart out, grab it, and run back to her burrow. She kept a watchful eye on us, I think they have very good eyesight.

If we forgot to feed her, she'd let us know. I could hear her clicking all the way at the front of the shop. She'd click non-stop til somebody went back to feed her.

Jenn

 

[ripped tide]

Lol!

Most of the spearers require a deep sand bed. They generally need 1-2inches of sand per each inch of body. They don't care much about rock work, because they pretty much stay in their hole unless coming out to eat. For the smasher I had, she lived in a large barnacle and would use pieces of rubble to close it up during the night. She was more active.

If I were you, I'd go with a small smasher. They can't break tanks..... Although, mine have always been in acrylic....

 

[curtismaximus]

JennM;875635 wrote: We kept one about 2-3" for about 6 years. She (?) was cool. Bright green and quite a character. We had her in a little hex tank on the back counter. We were sad when she passed, but 6 years is a decent run, considering we didn't know how old she was when we got her.

Ours just had a little cave made of small pieces of live rock. When we'd drop food in, she'd look around to make sure the coast was clear, then dart out, grab it, and run back to her burrow. She kept a watchful eye on us, I think they have very good eyesight.

If we forgot to feed her, she'd let us know. I could hear her clicking all the way at the front of the shop. She'd click non-stop til somebody went back to feed her.

Jenn

Lol! You always have the best stories Jenn! :yes:
You are really making me want one now! Any idea what kind it was? How much sand did you have in the tank and any kind of lighting?

 

[sn4k33y3z]

Heath has a nice one!

 

[cedzaquaddiction]

Here is info on mine...

http://www.atlantareefclub.org/forums/showthread.php?t=79605">http://www.atlantareefclub.org/forums/showthread.php?t=79605</a>

Main piece of advice is to get a smasher, not a spearer. That way, you can just throw a couple of hermits in there, and not have to supply live fish.

And don't worry about the whole glass breakage myth. Just get a smaller mantis, and you'll be fine. I suggest the G. Smithii mantis...

Tons of helpful info here as well: [IMG]http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/arthropoda/crustacea/malacostraca/eumalacostraca/royslist/">http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/arthropoda/crustacea/malacostraca/eumalacostraca/royslist/</a>

Best of luck!!!

 

[curtismaximus]

CedzAquAddiction;875640 wrote: Here is info on mine...

http://www.atlantareefclub.org/forums/showthread.php?t=79605">http://www.atlantareefclub.org/forums/showthread.php?t=79605</a>

Main piece of advice is to get a smasher, not a spearer. That way, you can just throw a couple of hermits in there, and not have to supply live fish.

And don't worry about the whole glass breakage myth. Just get a smaller mantis, and you'll be fine. I suggest the G. Smithii mantis...

Tons of helpful info here as well: [IMG]http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/arthropoda/crustacea/malacostraca/eumalacostraca/royslist/">http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/arthropoda/crustacea/malacostraca/eumalacostraca/royslist/</a>

Best of luck!!![/QUOTE]

So with a spearer I would have to put in live fish for it to eat? Can't I just feed it live food or what flows into the refugium from the main display? I know it is probably just me being paranoid but if I put him in the refugium there can be zero risk of it breaking the glass. I know with a spearer I won't have to worry about that. I don't mean to be a worry willy but with a 120g display and a 55g sump that's a lot of water!

 

[ripped tide]

I had a zebra(spearer) that would eat frozen. But they really do need the deep sand.

 

[curtismaximus]

Ripped Tide;875799 wrote: I had a zebra(spearer) that would eat frozen. But they really do need the deep sand.

Ah forgot about the deep sand bed. I'm not putting a DSB in a fuge with a Mantis! I will keep doing more research on the smashers. What are the names of some small smashers?

 

[ripped tide]

I had a Neogonodactylus oerstedii that was bright neon green. She was the one that lived in the barnacle. The challenge is that most of the time, coral and rock farmers toss the mantis shrimps if they find them. You would need to have a supplier that is directly connected to the collectors/farmers to find the smaller species. The popular ornamental mantis shrimps are the peacock and zebra. Other than those two, I haven't seen many others offered for sale.

Edit: You just have to find them.

 

[curtismaximus]

Ripped Tide;875814 wrote: I had a Neogonodactylus oerstedii that was bright neon green. She was the one that lived in the barnacle. The challenge is that most of the time, coral and rock farmers toss the mantis shrimps if they find them. You would need to have a supplier that is directly connected to the collectors/farmers to find the smaller species. The popular ornamental mantis shrimps are the peacock and zebra. Other than those two, I haven't seen many others offered for sale.

Edit: You just have to find them.

Yea that's what I was afraid of. I am going to ask a few live rock suppliers and some fish stores and see if they will help me out. If not then I might be out of luck on this idea. :sick:

 

[jennm]

Dylan, that's probably what I had... mine was bright neon green too - a smasher.

She ate anything - frozen, pellets, freeze dried krill, another mantis (oops), and the occasional nuisance crab.

Jenn

 

[cedzaquaddiction]

Curtismaximus;875795 wrote: So with a spearer I would have to put in live fish for it to eat? Can't I just feed it live food or what flows into the refugium from the main display? I know it is probably just me being paranoid but if I put him in the refugium there can be zero risk of it breaking the glass. I know with a spearer I won't have to worry about that. I don't mean to be a worry willy but with a 120g display and a 55g sump that's a lot of water!

No need to worry about a smasher breaking your glass unless you put a very large peacock in a 10g tank. I have a <span style="color: black">Gonodactylaceus ternatensis, which is the largest of the gonodactylid species. It gets nearly as large as a peacock, and actually bores holes in LR to make a home for itself. When I first got him, I put him in a 20g tank for acclimation, and he struck the glass full force a couple of times with no ill effects. Besides, the smashers don't really seem to like hitting against glass. I believe the density and noise of glass bothers them. Mine ran and tried to hide the couple of times it hit the glass. I challenge you to find an actual video on youtube of a mantis actually breaking an aquarium. There's a video of it breaking some paper thin glass for visual effect, but no videos of them breaking an aquarium.</span>

Mine also eats frozen scallops and shrimp as well as any other live shellfish I throw in there. He's even taken down golf ball sized hermit crabs and turbo snails. I just throw about 10-20 hermits in the tank a month, and he takes them down at his leisure.

Smashers are allot easier to maintain as spearers need a very deep sandbed made of special sand so they can make their burrows, and are rarely seen outside of the burrow.

I'd reccomend getting a small smasher, and enjoy. I can't mention the names but some of the online vendors in Florida have them on a regular basis if you can't get a sponsor to get you one.

BTW: Some mantis don't do well with bright lights, and get shell rot, so make sure they have places to hide in your sump.

Best of luck!!!

 

[curtismaximus]

Hey thanks for the encouragement Cedz. So its looking like a smasher will be the way to go. I am going to continue to doresearch on them through the July 4th break and look into getting one after vacation. My fudge is lit by two CFL spiral bulbs with the cheap Lowes reflectors. Do you think that is to much? What about adding sand to my BB fuge, anyone have an opinion on that?

 

[cedzaquaddiction]

NP. They are really fascinating creatures...

That shouldn't be too much light for the mantis as long as you stay away from the peacock. They are extra sensitive to light.

One thing you can do instead of adding sand to your fuge, is to add a simple pvc tunnel for the mantis to live, ambush, and hide in as it sees fit...

Someting like this at the bottom of your fuge.
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[curtismaximus]

CedzAquAddiction;875878 wrote: NP. They are really fascinating creatures...

That shouldn't be too much light for the mantis as long as you stay away from the peacock. They are extra sensitive to light.

One thing you can do instead of adding sand to your fuge, is to add a simple pvc tunnel for the mantis to live, ambush, and hide in as it sees fit...

Someting like this at the bottom of your fuge.
|__________________|__________________|

Ok I didn't think about that. So the smashers do not require a sand bed?

 

[cedzaquaddiction]

Most of them prefer it, but I've seen several setups without it. Allot of mantis species live in LR. While some of them do burrow in sand, most smashers are just fine with a manmade burrow. I know of several setups with sand and a pvc tunnel. More often than not, the mantis goes for the pvc burrow.

On second thought, you can probably place a very small sandbed in there to hide the mantis from his reflection on the bottom of your sump.

 

[curtismaximus]

What if I added about an inch of mineral mud and an inch of sand? Plus some 2" PVC?