How to care of a baby mantis shrimp?

[daniella3d]

Hi, I got a large piece of liverock with zoanthids today and cut it in many pieces and found a baby mantis shrimp in there. I put it in my nano tank that is without any fish, just 2 small blue legged hermit crabs, liverock and macro algae, lots of pods.

It is currently light brown and about one inch in length. It has the mantis ball eyes and the claw. It is not an amphipods, it is much longer than any ampipods I have seen and it has a different shape. From the bubble eyes, I am guessing it is a mantis, but not sure.

How would to feed it and care for it? I don't have any pic because I was cought off guard and put it in the tank right away and it went hiding.

[gobytron]

first things first, are you sure its not a pistol shrimp?

[born]

I had a peacock and also took on my cousins hitchhiker who was a Gonodactylus childi.
With the smaller g.childi, take like a skewer with a small piece of shrimp at the end and see if it will come out and take it. or just drop in a small piece of shrimp by its den, it will likely find it.
He will also feed on your pods in the tank.
Just make sure your iodine levels are good for it to molt and look out for shell disease on him.

Here is a good site that I learnt a lot about mantis shrimp from,
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/arthropoda/crustacea/malacostraca/eumalacostraca/royslist/index.html#directory
it's also a great place to find out exactly what species it is.
Roy studies stomatopods everyday, he's the guy who knows it all.

[reefwars]

i had a g.smithi(???) mantis ,he was a smasher so stayed most of the time in his burrow, i would feed him mysis,brine and silversides. not sure what you would feed a baby though :) how small is it and any colour?? goodluck:)


ps. sometimes you may have to open his burrows door once he fills it to feed him:)

[daniella3d]

No, it is not a regular shrimp as it has the very protruding bubble eyes that a mantis shrimp have.

The eyes are like balls on a stick and sticking out quite a bit. The pistol has regular shrimp eyes.

At first I thought it was a large amphipods but then I saw that it had a much longer and larger body and those strange eyes...then I realized it was a mantis.

this is what it look like:

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8lnlAMMqb5k/Tsjwt9SLJUI/AAAAAAAAALk/nvsuFapWksg/s640/20nov11c.jpg

first things first, are you sure its not a pistol shrimp?

[daniella3d]

I can't even see it now but I will add iodine in the tank to normal dosing level.

It went hiding in the jungle of cheato and macro-algae.

I have some fish roe (caplan eggs) that remain quite a long time in the tank without fooling, would it eat that?

Thanks for the link, I will check it out.


I had a peacock and also took on my cousins hitchhiker who was a Gonodactylus childi.
With the smaller g.childi, take like a skewer with a small piece of shrimp at the end and see if it will come out and take it. or just drop in a small piece of shrimp by its den, it will likely find it.
He will also feed on your pods in the tank.
Just make sure your iodine levels are good for it to molt and look out for shell disease on him.

Here is a good site that I learnt a lot about mantis shrimp from,
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/arthropoda/crustacea/malacostraca/eumalacostraca/royslist/index.html#directory
it's also a great place to find out exactly what species it is.
Roy studies stomatopods everyday, he's the guy who knows it all.

[Pinchy]

From my experience you will not need to feed it anything. Mine grew to a significant size without me feeding whatsoever. Actually I was hoping it would die, I finally caught it when i shutdown my nano and gave it away for free.

[reefwars]

mine starved.......it happens when its the only thing in your tank,pods are smart and stay away from predators once they know their territory...after a while he stopped coming for food even if i broke into his house with it.....i tried ots of different varety of food from fresh crab to pellets plus what i mentioned earlier.

not sure why he stopped eating as it seemed like he was enjoying the food but i wasnt sure of its age either

[daniella3d]

My guess is that he could not molt. Shrimps stop eating before they molt and a very often cause of death for shrimps is when they cannot molt.

My pods are not very smart...when I clean my glass they don't even move so I pick them up with the rest. Amphipods hide but the smaller isopods and copepods are not moving much.

I do need to feed my 2 little crabs in there and I give them cyclopeeze or fish roe, so I guess the shrimp should eat that. Not sure if it will survive though.

mine starved.......it happens when its the only thing in your tank,pods are smart and stay away from predators once they know their territory...after a while he stopped coming for food even if i broke into his house with it.....i tried ots of different varety of food from fresh crab to pellets plus what i mentioned earlier.

not sure why he stopped eating as it seemed like he was enjoying the food but i wasnt sure of its age either

[reefwars]

its hard to say i had him for almost a year he ate like a champ and had a tank dedicated to him....i got him from a friend who also had him for a long time so its hard to say what went wrong.i do know that he slowly stopped coming out for food to the point where i couldnt entice him to eat even fresh crab(which he loved) im not even sure of their lifespan....mine was a g.smithi i would also feed him any live hermits or hitch hikers i could get from others or i found in my tank(as i hate crabs)

ive had a couple peacocks over the years but i found them very easy to take care of compared to the g.smithi

your crabs will probably be lunch when he gets bigger if you do set up a tank just for him use only one piece of liverock so you know where to find him come feeding time or if you dont see him in a long time:):)

hahah makes me want to try another now hehehe:) goodluck im sure youll do fine with him:)

[daniella3d]

Ah then maybe he was too old. I wonder as well how long they live.

I don't really care if that thing grow big and eat my crabs :) I was going to take that tank apart and sell it but now I will wait a little bit and see what happen. There is no sand, but it's a real jungle of vegetation so it will not be easy to find it.

Also will they come out and forage for food or do you have to always feed them near their hole?

its hard to say i had him for almost a year he ate like a champ and had a tank dedicated to him....i got him from a friend who also had him for a long time so its hard to say what went wrong.i do know that he slowly stopped coming out for food to the point where i couldnt entice him to eat even fresh crab(which he loved) im not even sure of their lifespan....mine was a g.smithi i would also feed him any live hermits or hitch hikers i could get from others or i found in my tank(as i hate crabs)

ive had a couple peacocks over the years but i found them very easy to take care of compared to the g.smithi

your crabs will probably be lunch when he gets bigger if you do set up a tank just for him use only one piece of liverock so you know where to find him come feeding time or if you dont see him in a long time:):)

hahah makes me want to try another now hehehe:) goodluck im sure youll do fine with him:)

[reefwars]

Ah then maybe he was too old. I wonder as well how long they live.

I don't really care if that thing grow big and eat my crabs :) I was going to take that tank apart and sell it but now I will wait a little bit and see what happen. There is no sand, but it's a real jungle of vegetation so it will not be easy to find it.

Also will they come out and forage for food or do you have to always feed them near their hole?


my peacocks were out quite often but my g.smithi wasnt out a hole lot at least during the day when i was watching i guess it would depend on the type of mantis.they are def pretty cool though i bet yours will enjoy the macro hiding places:):) have you noticed if its a smasher or a spearer yet?? did you get an id on him/her????

[daniella3d]

No ID yet and no idea where it is hiding. It's really messy in there with lots of algae and cheato so I will clean it this weekend and see if I can find it.

I don't know if it is a smasher or spearer yet. I had no idea they were 2 different types so when I find it I will try to take pics or a video clip. It is very very shy though.

my peacocks were out quite often but my g.smithi wasnt out a hole lot at least during the day when i was watching i guess it would depend on the type of mantis.they are def pretty cool though i bet yours will enjoy the macro hiding places:):) have you noticed if its a smasher or a spearer yet?? did you get an id on him/her????