Stomatopods. Gods most effective killing machines.
Y’all know these guys as mantis shrimp.
You know, the weird lil inverts that look like the result of praying mantis taking advantage of an inebriated rock lobster?
Now, when it comes to mantis shrimp, they are most commonly known as the last possible thing that you would ever want in a reef tank. Its every reefers nightmare to have a hitch-hiker in their LR that will slowly eradicate every living creature in the tank. :bouncebox
:bouncebox
Common belief, but not necessarily true. Very understandable, especially being that some fish and inverts can cost the hobbyist hundreds of dollars.
This is actually how I first got wind of the whole “mantis tank idea.”
I first learned of these little critters existence from the discovery channel. It was a special on marine predators chock full of mantis shrimp footage from the wild and, the labs of the infamous, genius, studly stud known as Dr. Roy Cauldwell (formal introduction later.)
I was intrigued to say the least. But like most animals that id ever consider keeping, it seemed out of reach, cruel, and not possible.
Now lets flash forward like 18 months. I had a 75 gal brackish tank and questions. Low and behold I discover AC, RS, RC, RF, SWF, DARC, RMRC, and many other online forums. (all of which I have shoed myself in as like, a resident.
)
Any-who, I’m messing around one day and I see somebody’s rant about their triumph over this evil 4 inches of critter that they tortured alive before putting in bleach.
Now, said individual lost a great deal of livestock to a spearer mantis. Like $500.00 plus. He added 35 lbs LR to his existing set up. Needless to say, it came with a HH mantis.
So immediately after the hippie in me lashed out at this guy and I was “removed” :wit: from that specific forum, all I had were questions.
Like whoa, you can find these things? Where? Can they be kept? What do I need? Where do I get one? Ohh man I was excited.
So this is like July 06. From that point forward it was all research baby!!!! :read:
And by Nov. I had a tank w/ water, 28lbs LR and sand. And now a year and a half from the initial inspiration, I have a full blown mantis reef tank.:whstlr:
BUT, on almost a daily basis, I am seeing many people confused, or simply misinformed about these lil critters. SOOOOOOOOOOOO here is BOBs most commonly asked questions about mantis shrimp.
1.Can my mantis shrimp break glass?
That Depends.
There are two types of mantis shrimp. Spearers and smashers. The raptorial appendage on speares looks like the arm of a praying mantis on steroids. This flashes out faster than you can blink and does a substantial amount of damage.
On smasheres, the rapitorial appendage is like a club that smashes the exoskeleton or shell of their pray. (this is also the fastest movement of any living organism.
Check this out.
YouTube - Sheila Patek: Measuring the fastest animal on earth
But back to the original question Out of the hundreds of species of mantis, there are only a few species that get large enough to do so. These are ;
Odontodactylus scyllarus, Gonodactylaceus ternatensis, Gonodactylaceus graphurus, Gonodactylaceus chiragra and Hemisquilla californiensis.
2.Can I keep fish and other creatures in the same tank?
Again, that’s like adult diapers, it depends. :invisible
See you have to take into account that spearer mantis shrimp eat fish and mobile inverts like shrimp and crabs. Smashers Focus on consuming snails, hermits, clams and other small crustations and gastropods. But this is not to say a spearer wont kill a snail, and a smasher wont kill a fish.
Mantis’ are very personable.
Each individual mantis has its own specific and unique lil personality. Some are wusses, strait up. Wont eat or kill nuthin that isn’t fed to them, hide in their rock or borough all day and tolerate every living creature in their tank.
Others will simply be mean and aggressive. They will kill anything that moves, even if just for sport. Then there is everything in between. So really, there is no way to say for sure you can keep this with these mantis’ and these with those.
So my suggestion would be to not get the mantis fish shrimp and other critters all at the same time. Rather get the mantis in his nice new fully cycled home, and add things slowly to see what it does.
Also keep in mind that manually feeding a mantis will reduce their motivation to go kill stuff. They’re kinda like people. If you train it to get fat and eat dead food for free, it wont leave its “couch.”
Or if you want it to be aggressive, don’t feed much, and provide ample amounts of live food.
3.Can I keep corals with a mantis shrimp?
Well for the most part, Darn tootin!!!!
Especially if its an intertidal species, they can handle all the light you need for corals. Some deepwater species of mantis will be an exception, because too much light can lead to shell disease and other complications.
It is best to “glue you colonies down to avoid them slipping falling, or being moved by the mantis. But in my personal experience, my turbo snail does more damage to my aquascaping then my mantis.
4.Can I keep more than one in the same tank?
99% no.
The one exception is a mated pair of Lysiosquillina maculate (which is rare and require a specialized tank…), or some uber rare exception. For the most part though 2 mantises in one is gonna be a battledome.
5.What do I feed this thing?
Meat.
well as far as frozens go; For all mantis shrimp, krill, mysis, silversides, brine, deli shrimp, and squid.
Live food for a spearer wood be like damsels, ghost shrimp (SW only), other shrimp, and maybe a small crab.
Smashers will like the shrimps, hermits, mythrax crabs, snails, and even fish.
5b Can I feed a mantis FW feeders?
Absolutely positively not.
6.Who was that Dr, Roy Guy?
Glad you asked.
Member Research Profile
Dr. Roy L. Caldwell is a Stomatopodiatrist, and has been researching these lil critters for like more than 30 years. He heads the Mantis shrimp forum on RC.
Reef Central Online Community - Mantis Shrimp
Its very nice to get personal attention from someone with the amount of knowledge this guy has.
7.How do I tell what type of mantis I want/ already have?
Roy's List of Stomatopods for the Aquarium
8* Great. How do I get the POS out of my super expensive reef tank with thousands of dollars of fish?
Well, pest traps work very well, like the ones you can buy, or convince Doni from RS to loan you. Also a simple L-shaped piece of PVC with an endcap and food in one end works well, if you have the patience to watch it.
9 .I don’t have one, but want one, where do I get it.
Distributor of Mantis Shrimp, Corals, and other Invertebrates Also, when searching for a specific species, call all LFS in a 3 state radius, craigslist, and marine forums. You never know when youll want another reefers trash!!
ALSO!!!!!!! I cant think of everything y’all wonder/need to know. So like just ask. If I don’t know the answer off hand, I can show you where to find it.!
