Thinking about a Mantis Shrimp

I have always thought that Mantis Shrimps looked really cool and were fascinating so I have decided on setting one up. I was wondering if anyone could give me some tips, I am looking into getting a small colorful mantis shrimp(smasher) and found one online someone is selling for $20 and comes with his live rock home. The species he called it was a Neogonodactylus wennerae. I was wondering what a suitable tank size for him would be as well as how long it would take to set up a tank for him if I started right now, and a price on food costs per week.

 

Hello dumbderk,

Here is a link with more info:
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/arthro...costraca/royslist/species.php?name=n_wennerae

As for food costs, my stomatopods (none of them N. wennerae, both about 5") go through about 3-4 hermit crabs apiece every week. Then they scavenge what they can when I feed my fish as well. Overall, it does not cost too much to feed them as they will learn to eat what you offer. Just make sure the N. wennerae gets fed hard shelled creatures regularly otherwise the raptoral appendages (smashers) may fall off when it molts. I do not target feed my mantis shrimp anymore because it makes them lazy.

As for how long it takes to set up a tank, it needs to cycle like any other tank. Though a 5.2g (minimum recommended size for N. wenneare) tank may not take long to cycle.

 

I feed my N. wennerae krill, hermit crabs, and snails. I guesstimate I spend around $20 a year on food for it. One package of krill lasts me forever as I rarely feed more than half a krill once a week. Often I feed half a krill every other week.

Peter_T makes a good point about making them lazy by target feeding. If you always feed it at its den it will never leave its den as it has no need to. I always make my mantis shrimp go across the tank to get the krill.

I also give it saltwater ghost shrimp on occasion because they love to chase them. Those are super cheap though at my LFS I pay $2 for a dozen of them. I do that a couple times a year just for fun.

 

I feed my 6" Peacock Mantis live hermit crabs. I started out feeding frozen foods, which it took well, but found it rather boring (probably for him as well). So I throw a dozen hermits in and let him do his thing until the supply gets low.

 

Frozen doesn't have to be boring, just put it on a feeding stick really hard so he has to work to get it off. My stomatopods have to use their raptorial appendages even for frozen.

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