Peacock Mantis Shrimp

Green with blue spots would most likely be a Neogonodactylus wennerae

It's a common hitchhiker with Caribbean rock and in particular rock that comes from Florida.

 

The lfs were I get my rock from say that they get their rock from Florida. I guess I'll have to remove the rock, the few times that I've seen "it" it came out of the same rock. I'll try anything cuz out of the 4 peps. I bought last thursday I only has two left. Thanks for everybody help and Ideas!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Please don't kill the guy/girl if you can. I bought my N. Wennerae from the LFS because someone had her hitchiking in his rock. She was only 3/4" long then and surely wasn't causing trouble. Now she's 1.5 inches and has 2 invert buddies that she hasn't eaten

I've heard someone do something with a jar to trap a mantis. But small mantises are fairly shy, and jump from rock to rock rather than come out into the open. As they get bigger they get braver, but as they get bigger they have the potential to eat stuff.

You could catch it and set up a small 10 gallon for it. We have a mantis club here on 3reef They're amazing creatures.

 

I'm not trying to kill it. I just want to figure out if it is whats killing my peppermints. I've already gotten rid of my purple lobster, and my green brittle star, (advice from another forum site) I traded them. If I can catch this guy I will end up trading him also.

 

Good choice. Thank you for not killing him. I checked four LFS for mantis shrimps and couldn't find them any where. I ended up driving for 2 hours to a live rock supplier to get mine.

 

;D;D;DYep! Schackmel was my first internet email name way back in the begining and it has stuck since! My old job I worked from home. Nobody there knew or called me by my real name, Melissa. Instead they all knew me as Schackmel from my email address. Boss introduced me to everyone as Schackmel at a meeting, and that is what everyone called me. When I would go to various get togethers or conferences thereI could not say Melissa, but instead Schackmel! ;D;D;D

 

How about a pic of this Mantis.

 

can't seem to get a pic it is very fast!! I can sit with camera ready for hr. and never comes out. I've been thinking about betting my 13 year old daughter that she can't get a picture of it. Bet she will have one in about 20 minutes !!!!: For now I will just keep staring at tank w/camera.

 

Yep they can be shy little buggers when they want too. Thats one of the follies of keeping them as pets (at least small N. Wennerae anyway).

As for being fast...

Roy Caldwell (a leading research on mantis shrimp) has one of his students working on escape behavior of O. Havanensis. They measured adults are capable of traveling 30 times their own body length in a second.

This is a video of how quick my mantis is. YouTube - My pet mantis Mr. Fister

In one frame he is in the top left corner... he is blurry but you can tell he is facing away from his den, in the next frame 1/30 of a second later he is back in his den. He had to do a 180 degree turn and travel over an inch in 0.034 seconds.