grrrr stupid pistol shrimp....

I definitely wouldn't want one. Interesting articles.

04.21.2004 - Mantis shrimp may have swiftest kick in the animal kingdom
USATODAY.com - Shrimp spring into shattering action

 

ok...I have a peacock mantis and a tiger pistol...both are cool and both are VERY misunderstood.
Can a manits break the glass in a tank...MAYBE. Will one of the hitchhickers have the ability to do it...NO WAY. Look at the size of the smashers..most hitchhikers are about an inch long...how can they break the glass of a good quality tank?. A larger species like a peacock...I say maybe because I have seen the same videos everyone is pointing to. However, in the majority of the time it is because the glass is weak, cracked or somebody is there teasing the mantis, most of the time it is a kid tapping at the glass and the glass was already chipped. But it is HIGHLY UNUSUAL!

Now in regards to eating fish...I have my pistol in my reef tank. It has a shrimpgoby and guess what...it has not ate one of my fish. Now my tang attacked and killed a wrasse, my blue jaw swallowed a bangaii cardinal, but never has my pistol ate anybody. I think we all see images of them eating fish and assume they killed them. If they are well fed they will not go after fish. They will eat dead ones as they are also scavangers...but that is a good thing!

I have fish in my mantis tank also...same thing. As well as it is well fed it is fine. It never ate a fish...in fact yesterday I was cleaning Bobs tank and there was a fish hiding in the den wiht Bob and he did not eat him even then...which I would have thought he would of as it is a natural instinct to protect your house!

 

I would love to have a Pistol/Goby combo! It was one of the first things we considered getting...but will have to wait for our tank to get older.

It's possible for a pistol to kill and eat something like a cleaner shrimp...but if you feed him he should be fine. Ship it our way if you don't want it.

 

Hey Jwin...was looking at your tank specs..what is a fuzzy chiton? Just curious as I have not seen one! I love my pistol/goby pair. They were in front of my tank but now they have moved into the back where I cant see them very well but they will move again..I hope back to the front

 

Well, it's essentially an Algae eating snail that looks like moss covered poo. Sure blasts through algae though. I'll try and get a pick of Mr. Fuzzy. They're snails that allow moss to grow on them for camo. Pretty cool guys.

 

What species have you kept? I am really interested in getting one, not sure what to do if it doesnt sneak home in LR though.

 

Hi, Just a few -maybe stupid- questions.... is a Pistol and Goby pair the only thing u can have in your tank? and how do you find the right goby for the Pistol? ;D

 

My favorite species are Odontodactylus scyllarus, Gonodactylus smithii, and Gonodactylus smithii but I've kept other species.

Here's a list of species that are available to hobbyists Roy's List of Stomatopods for the Aquarium

Here's an article I wrote on mantis care a number of years ago http://www.seasl.org/wave/Vol 1 Num 3 Final.pdf

 

I just saw a pic of 'cuddles' do you go on stomatopod.com's forum? or do ppl just tend to name their Mantis's Cuddles? hehe hehe