is this a mantis or bad shrimp

ya...the only shrimp i saw break a glass was my friends pistol shrimp...its giant...its like 1 foot big...its one of the deep sea pistols its crazy...he got it from a friend that worked for a sea world type place that lost funding...most of it went to sea world and other places but he kept the shrimpy...i wish i had a pic...but he lives on the ease coast and i dont really keep in touch with him anymore...

 

1' pistol shrimp?! That IS crazy. I'd be terrified to keep something that big

 

ya i know...i thought it was a lobster, he feeds them little feeder shrimp and crabs...and u know how pistol shrimp shoot...think of that like x100 lol..its so loud

 

ok thank for the advice but i found out something new. the rock is not a live rock it ia a xmas tree rock it has about 5 worms on it and some coral that is actually alive on it now what do i do? i would love to keep the xmass tree worms and see if the coral will spead. i noticed the coral when i saw it under my actinics it floresence. i only paid 3 dallers for it but it would be cool to just get rid of the mantis. i do have snails and shrimp. im beginning to hate this hobby.

 

also when any fish or shrimp go by these so called mantis they suck back in there holes like they are scared of it. the never come all the way out of there holes. there is 2 of them

 

If you don't mind losing a crab or snail or shrimp from time to time, leave the mantis in there. If you do mind, see if you can trap them. Here's a link to a homemade trap:

http://www.floridadriftwood.com/fish_trap.htm

Be prepared to feed live phytoplankton if you want to keep those Christmas tree worms alive

 

Really? My experiences differ. I had a 2.5" Mantis in my 125 which was then transplanted into my 180 for close to two years and while I could never directly attribute a fish loss to it (i.e. I never saw it actually attack a fish), I had several mysterious disappearances (all goby/blenny types) and one situation where I saw the tail of a fish hanging out of a hole under a rock, moving around a little. "What's he doing in there?" I asked. Imagine my horror when I saw the Mantis come out and try to pull him in further. The fish was dead and the Mantis was dragging it into his lair. Again, I didn't see the attack, but the fish had been healthy the day before so I put 2 and 2 together. I also had no non-hermit crabs left (including a couple of nice emeralds), lost a lot of snails, lost a lot of peppermint shrimp and lost a beautiful pair of cleaner shrimp. The only shrimp that was able to survive was a banded coral shrimp, all others were mantis food.

The problem with this guy was that he was smart and fast. I tried trapping him to no avail. I tried isolating him in a rock, but he never seemed to be in said rock when I pulled it out. The final solution was a mini Hawaiian sling made out of a small brass dowell sharpened to a point and shot out of a small brass tube with a big fat rubberband doubled over as a "propellant." I never hit him directly, but I winged him hard enough on one shot that he didn't survive.

After that I never had a problem with fish/crab/snail/shrimp loss like that again.

Darren

 

if u wanna keep the rock and etc and kill the mantis...u can always put epoxy over the hole...however this is cruel and unusual lol..good thing the laws dont apply here :/

 

i never did say the size of the thing the hole he lives in is half the size of a number 2 pencil maybe smaller

 

i was looking at pics of mantis shrimp and these things dont look like a mantis at all. ill let everyone know if i find something more