Jared Cooper
New member
Can a Mantis shrimp sense a fishes heatbeat? Whenever I put live fish in the tank my mantis immediatly comes out compared to when I add dead food.
a question for the Dr. about mantis senses
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Gonodactylus
Premium Member
We know that in some species the senses of smell and vision are very well developed. We have also started working on their ability to detect pressure waves and/or sound. The antennal scales may be involved, but this work has only just begun.
I've seen Hemisquilla off Catalina dive for cover when a diver hit the water 80 feet above them with 10 foot visibility. (We were using remove video.) I'm convinced that they have an excellent ability to detect pressure waves and/or vibrations.
Roy
I've seen Hemisquilla off Catalina dive for cover when a diver hit the water 80 feet above them with 10 foot visibility. (We were using remove video.) I'm convinced that they have an excellent ability to detect pressure waves and/or vibrations.
Roy
my mantis are usually always in their caves when i comes time to feed, so i tap the glass lightly to get their attention.
im not sure whether they have associated the tapping with food or they are just curious but when they hear the tapping they are very quick to respond.
do mantis have long memories?
can they learn a routine like the one im trying to teach at feeding?
how much can a mantis learn?
thanks again!
i just wanted to add that when i started to feed my mantis with food stabbed on a skewer, they would rush the food, hit the skewer repeatedly and thrash around trying to get the food off.
they now come out very calmly (still cautiously) and take the food of the skewer very delicately without any thrashing or hitting.
they are very nice mantis!
im not sure whether they have associated the tapping with food or they are just curious but when they hear the tapping they are very quick to respond.
do mantis have long memories?
can they learn a routine like the one im trying to teach at feeding?
how much can a mantis learn?
thanks again!
i just wanted to add that when i started to feed my mantis with food stabbed on a skewer, they would rush the food, hit the skewer repeatedly and thrash around trying to get the food off.
they now come out very calmly (still cautiously) and take the food of the skewer very delicately without any thrashing or hitting.
they are very nice mantis!
Gonodactylus
Premium Member
There have been very few studies on learning in mantis shrimp. We use discrimination learning to discover what colors and types of polarized light they can see, but that is about it. I can tell you that like pigs, they do not respond well to adversive (punishment) conditioning. It is much easier to get them to respond to food or shelter.
Even here we sometimes run into trouble. In a classic study to examine learning in octopus, investigators presented the octopus with two paddles with different patterns on them. Behind on was hidden a crab. Fairly quickly, the octopus learned ot approach the correct pattern to get the crab. When I tried this with a mantis shrimp, it learned very quickly, but then things fell apart. It started associating the paddle with food and seized and tried to break and eat the paddle.
The experiment that we did that shows the longest memory in mantis shrimp asked the simple question "How long can a male remember its mate?" The answer is about a month, considerably longer than has been shown for many other invertebrates.
BTW, there is an article in the lastest Discover magazine that describes work done here at Berkeley by Dr. Mead on how mantis shrimp "sniff" odors.
Ro
Even here we sometimes run into trouble. In a classic study to examine learning in octopus, investigators presented the octopus with two paddles with different patterns on them. Behind on was hidden a crab. Fairly quickly, the octopus learned ot approach the correct pattern to get the crab. When I tried this with a mantis shrimp, it learned very quickly, but then things fell apart. It started associating the paddle with food and seized and tried to break and eat the paddle.
The experiment that we did that shows the longest memory in mantis shrimp asked the simple question "How long can a male remember its mate?" The answer is about a month, considerably longer than has been shown for many other invertebrates.
BTW, there is an article in the lastest Discover magazine that describes work done here at Berkeley by Dr. Mead on how mantis shrimp "sniff" odors.
Ro
