mantis shrimp

Mr Krabs, My 7" Peacock eats damsels, snails, hermits, or anything he can get his fists of fury on, at any occasion. As much as i hate to say this, I think i enjoy watching him more then my reefs. Hes real active, always out looking around for things to destroy! He gets more attention then my 300 Trigger tank! I highly reccommend a Mantis.

 

I'm sooooo ashamed of myself. ;D

 

Oh, I can tell! I'll send Roger your way when it comes time to explain why I NEED another tank set up

 

;D
What came into my head to type was too obnoxious to type for even me to type. However, it was funny and both you and Tangster would have wet your pants.

 

You're assuming that either one of us is wearing pants

 

hey guys, i'm hoping you can help me out... i'm about 70/30 decided on getting a mantis shrimp... i finally saw some videos today, and was absolutely amazed! it was like the chicken fighting of the marine world (all the videos i saw were a mantis and i think emerald crab)... however, i don't think i could stomach watching it fight for food in real life... i mean, it just seems so sick, twisted, demented, demonic... any other words? oh! PURE HELL!!! it seems that most people have a mantis for the pure violence.. since, from what i understand, if they're not feeding/fighting, they pretty much hide out in a hole (or under LR)... if i do decide to get one, should i have a separate, smaller tank, or just have it in my 55-gal and forget having fish as pets? i've read from the "lurker's guide" that some people have just had a shrimp in a gallon container... however, i was thinking about giving it a little more space, probably a 10 gallon at least... i've read that the "breaking glass" deal has only been recorded once or twice, so its not a real common problem, just a rare possibility... about feeding them, i was thinking live food (be it a crab, snail, fish, or whatever) once or twice a week, and the rest of the time, just giving it a frozen/thawed shrimp... would the shrimp you get at the grocery store suffice? or is there a certain kind of shrimp i would need to get? would the grocery store shrimp have anything added to them that would kill the mantis? (chemicals, or anything to make them safe for human consumption)... back to the tank setup... if i do decide to get a separate tank, would i still need to run a protein skimmer, if i do the water changes once a week or every 2 weeks? the LFS is going to have a good deal coming up, a 10 gallon, all inclusive kit for around 30 bucks... it has a BIOwheel, 3stage powerfilter, heater, lights canopy.. .a basic "starter kit" that you can get almost anywhere... wal-mart has the same setup, but instead of the biowheel, it just has the flat BIO-panel thing...(i forget exactly what its called, but i know its pretty cheap)... i was thinking of a decent sandbed, and maybe a single piece of LR, that has a natural curve, to use it as a cave... i'll most likely be buying a 10 gallon aquarium anyway, to use either as a mantis shrimp tank, or a refugium for my 55... anyway.. i've rambled on long enough... what's my original question?? hehehe
thanks,
Twan

 

Well, I don't really keep mantis for chicken fighting purposes. I just find them a very interesting animal.

Care requirements for a mantis can be found on the attached article. http://www.seasl.org/wave/Vol 1 Num 3 Final.pdf

 

i'm not saying that anyone in particular do keep them for that... but from the videos on youtube, that's the way it seems... i mean, i've seen a couple that, before the crab even hit the ground, the mantis was on it like white on rice on a paper plate with a glass of milk in a snowstorm! and after seeing nothing but "mantis shrimp attacks", its hard to find any other reason to keep them...

 

oh, and apparently, something's wrong with that site or my computer... i've tried to load it from the lurker's guide, and it does the same thing... load for a minute, then say "done" at the bottom, but i've still got a solid white screen...

 

Well, I find mantis interesting for a number of reasons.

They have the most complicated visual system in the world. We see three colors (and the combination of those three). They see 16 colors and many species see 16 includng infrared, ultraviolet, and polarized lighting. They have one of the swiftest movements in the animal kingdom and when you consider that they do it under water which has a lot more drag than air, that's pretty amazing. There's more interesting info here. What's Special about Stomatopods?

Try the link again.....I suspect the server was down or something.

If you follow the instructions on my link, you will end up with an animal that is NOT hiding all day from you. You will end up with an animal that when you study it, it studies you right back. One of my peacock's even had interaction with my dogs. Fluffy HATED Cheyenne's guts and they would get into fights. (Boy did it get annoying). Cheyenne would put her nose on the acrylic and Fluffy would hit her nose. Cheyenne would bark, I would yell at her and then she would put her nose on the acrylic again. AAARRRGGGHHH. On the other hand, Cherokee would just look at Fluffy and Fluffy would just look back. This same mantis would watch whatever I was doing but whenever Rachel would walk up, she went into a meral spread. (That was due to the vacuum cleaner incident).