Hello. I live on the Outer Banks of North Carolina and almost a week ago I found a large ( 6-7 inch ) Mantis Shrimp. It was laying on the beach and I thought it was dead so I wrapped it in something and took it home with the thoughts of showing it to some of my friends. I thought Mantis Shrimp were strictly tropical creatures. Well...it started to move around very sluggishly when I got it home so I rushed back to the beach and got 5 gallons of sea water. I put the shrump and the sea water into a cooler and left them alone and outside because I wasn't sure if I should warm it up to room temp or not since it is winter and the ocean temp is pretty low. I left it out for 2 days and each day when I came home it looked like it was near death. (Lying on its side or back and not moving at all until I would set it upright....yes I picked it up several times and only once it fired off it's swords at me.) It has spears with several smaller barbs on them and it is sort of a dull greenish blue almost an opaque opal color. I took it inside and let it slowly reach room temp. Right now I have it in a 10 gal aquarium with a power head filter running, no light, no hood, no heaterm and it seems to be fine. My question is....does anyone have any idea what type it is and if it is common in this area? It is very active now that I have it warmed up. I've tried to feed it live goldfish with no success. I've been keeping fresh and marine aquaria for 10+ years so I know a bit about setting up and maintaining tanks, chemistry etc. I really want to keep this little creature alive and would appreciate any tips or info. Sorry for the long post and thanks in advance...
-Dan
-Dan
