Baby Tiny Mantis Question

[niko5]

How long is the body of a baby Mantis? I hear the clicks day and night.. hehe I know i have some in my TBS rock or atleast one... 2 times now I have seen what i THINK is the mantis.. it is tiny.. the head looks like a mantis but its SMALL it comes out of its hole but what throws me off is the body is so long.. i never see the back half... then i shine the light directly on it and QUICKLY it sucks back in... can someone give me some pics of SMALL mantis? or idea what im lookin at...

 

[jedimpt]

Why don't you try to get him out and have a good look at him if you know which rock he's in.

 

[Gonodactylus]

If we assume that you have a gonodactyloid, the most common group of stomatopods to come in LR, juveniles recruit from the plankton at 7-12 mm total length depending on the species. Within 10 days they are fully colored and look just like adults - only smaller. For the first year of life, they will grow about 1 mm per month, so if you know when the LR was collected, you can guesstimate their maximum size. With less food, they grow very slowly.

Roy

 

[Dazz]

Actually I have some new TBS also. I have found that the Mantis shrimp (I found 2) are alot more bold than the pistol shrimp. That clicking you are hearing is probably the pistol shrimp.

Not the "pistol shrimp" that they send you because those are actually pepermint shrimp, but true pistol shrimp which hide in thr rock. They are the size of ghost shrimp (maybe a little larger) about 1 to 2 cm and make a louder noise than the 2 mantis I have (3 inches each).

 

[niko5]

Could i have gotten a hitchhiker pistol shrimp with the TBS stuff?

 

[Dazz]

absolutely! After hearing the clicking still, I took out all my rock and put it on a tarp to get what I thought was a mantis out.

While everything was out, I heard clicking from inside the tank!!!
So I listened again to know where it was comming from. It was very loud. I coudnt see a mantis so I started dragging a wooden poker through the sand all of a suddon I got to a spot and heard the click. I look and there was nothing there (I thought) I bring the stick back there again and I look really closely... low and behold a pistol shrimp! I found a total of 3 all hitch hikers!

 

[niko5]

hummm and even though they are small they still make thatnoise?

 

[Dazz]

oh yea...
The water in the pistol shrimps claw gets so pressureized that for a pico second it becomes the temperature of the sun. The shockwave stuns pods and other pray.

 

[niko5]

Interesting... Are the shrimp bad to keep by the way?

 

[Dazz]

Not at all, infact they are very good for the tank. They will scavange as well as hunt and they can sometimes mate and produce more food for the tank.

They are cool looking little guys too hehe