babies

[obiwan13]

I got two big mantis shrimp w/ my shipment of TB LR but luckily they never made it into my tank. I've got them seperate in a 3 gallon tank. The other night I noticed they laid eggs in my rock. That's right itty bitty mantis shrimp in my reef. Any suggestions on how to deal?

 

[lilswanwillow]

hmmmm

hmmmm

this is for the babies, not the adults... just an idear

you know, i have actually been thinking of a way that MAYBE we could get some to live past the 'deadly' stage.
why don't we try putting them into a tank (all of em) with a high amount of water flow, and a piece of dead coral (I have this big ole peice of coral i picked up off of a Florida beach when I was ten... lots of holes)
and then treat them like you would corals, feeding a lot of little things, such as zooplankton an phytoplankton, and bbs (baby brine shrimp) and things like that. the high water movement would make force them to stay within their own holes in the rockwork, and bring their food to them until they are big enough to be seperated out.
problems:
keeping them from being sucked up, but maybe if the propeller was ok, they would go right though....
might still eat eachother (they're canabalistic)
pluses:
you would beable to sell a crapload of them, and eventually breed for bigger n brighter ones!!! and we'd all beable to get what we want instead of hoping for that beautiful spearer

oh, otherwise, your replies will be: they will live for a few days, then kill eachother an die

 

[obiwan13]

thanks, I'm more concerned w/ how to get the little buggers out of the tank. You know it's funny though, I started off hating these guys w/ the passion, now there starting to grow on me.

 

[lilswanwillow]

are there still others in the main tank?
otherwise, people here will take them off your hands.... just mention that your tryin to get rid of them, and :blown: they're gone!!!!!
or, you could keep them... get them really good holes and seperate tanks, and they'll stop hitting the glass (read your other post) they'll just hang out...
nano tanks are good
and the description of the one with black tips sounds interesting..... you should describe them here, too!!!!
oh, the BABIES are in the reef tank
no worries, if they are tiny, tiny... they'll die...
or any little fish that eats shrimp/crab babies will do it

 

[Gonodactylus]

It takes the eggs three weeks to hatch and then the female broods the larvae after they have hatched for another week. At that point they become freeswimming and enter the plankton. You can attracted them if you darken the room and shine a flashlight into the tank. However, they will all die in two or three days. If they have been around longer than that, they probably are not mantis shrimp.

Roy

 

[obiwan13]

they've already hatched and are definately mantis. If what you say is true they should be dead soon if not already.

Thanks

 

[Gonodactylus]

Neogonodactylus wennerae larvae go through 3 molts while with the mother. During this time they live on stored yolk. When they molt the fourth larval stage, they leave the mother's cavity (because they are attracted to the light) and enter the plankton where they will remain for at least a month molting another 4 times and growing to around 8 mm. The last larvall molt occurs while they are still planktonic and postlarvae (clear, mini-adults) settle and enter cracks and crevices on the reef. If postlarvae enter an aquarius system, they can survive and florish. However, it will be 15-18 months before they are large enought to breed (around 25-30 mm). The problem rearing larvae is that they are cannibalistic and require a mixed diet of plankton. We have occasionally been ablte to rear them, but under very special conditions with one to a cup, water changed daily, special food, etc. I have never seen gonodactylid larvae survive in an aquarium for longer than 3 or 4 days and usually they are dead in 2.

Roy