G. Viridis Garden Tank

[Brickster]

This is my tiny little Green Mantis Shrimp (Gonodactylellus viridis), which I've had for a couple of months now.

I had been wanting to keep a stomatopod for a while, but this is the only marine tank I have up at the moment, so a species tank wasn't going to cut it. The solution I settled on was a small mantis in a relatively big tank

It's a simple setup. The central rock is a 60lb piece of holey rock that was dug out of the local countryside (It is Texas holey rock, after all). Equipment is limited to a small Aqueon HOB, a maxijet 900, and a heater. I lean pretty heavily on the caulerpa to keep things clean, a job it's happy to do. There are a collection of rock anemones and a truly giant tube anemone (front right corner in the above pic)

There's four fish in the tank, which coexist well with the mantis. A Saddleback Clown, a Splendid Dottyback, a Three Stripe Damsel, and a PJ Cardinal. They're all big enough the mantis shrimp is intimidated by them, but none are stupid enough to mistake the little green guy for a meal. They wouldn't like him when he's angry. CUC is a big black brittle star and a rotating assortment of small crabs and snails.

Thanks for looking, let me know what you think!

 

[nmotz]

I like the Texas rock setup. I guess the Calerpa filters the tank well enough huh? I would think that some live rock would be needed to keep those nitrates low, but if you have success with just the Calerpa then that's cool too.

I'm originally from Texas and really like all of the natural crevices for the mantis to hide out.

You said that your mantis is intimidated by the fish. Does it affect how interactive he is? For some people, the presence of larger fish can make their mantis want to stay hidden all the time so that they never see him. Have you had that experience too?

I'm not too familiar with G. Viridis. What's his personality like? Do you predominantly feed him frozen or live food? How big is he right now?

I'm also not too familiar with anemones. Does it hurt pretty bad to get stung by them?

 

[Brickster]

Thanks for the reply!.

The caulerpa is very effective at filtering the tank, but as that giant rock matures, it may be making contributions of its own. I dose f/w plant fertilizer and by experimenting with different amounts, I can tell that the growth of the macro is nitrate limited. It's only efficient enough to get down to about 10-15ppm at its current mass, but it stays there. It's like a big refugium, it just happens to live in the display.

G. Viridis is a very small species. This one is a little under 2", and it won't get too much bigger than that. It arrived at the LFS as a hitchiker, and I watched it there for a good couple of months before I brought it home. I watched it stacking up rubble to make little tunnels and realized it would be in heaven inside that giant holey rock. The stone is bigger than an AGA 10G.

I didn't see it for the better part of a month once it was introduced into the tank. I heard it almost constantly though. Every hole that wasn't connected before is hooked up now. It has a whole universe in there. This species is listed as being hyper agressive, so intimidation by the fish is a relative deal. When there is an encounter (usually with the damsel), the mantis gets in a big hole and tries to taunt the fish into following and getting punched in the face. The fish shows off for a little while and swims away. Truth be told its interesting to watch.

The mantis is a creature of habit. It pops up every day around 10 or 11am and surveys its kingdom for a while. It eats 100% live and just sort of does its thing. The anemones eat alot, and demand a big clean up crew. The mantis rules out most things, so I use lots and lots of small hermits and snails that I periodically restock. If I'm home at the right time, I see it everyday unless its molting. I snapped this on the way out the door to work this morning.

As far as getting stung, the rock anemones actually feel like getting shocked with electricity and are flat out uncomfortable to touch. I handle those with care when placing them. The tube is just big. A few tentacles feels like a little buzz, but if it gets a few dozen on you it doesn't feel great. Any of them would kill those fish in a heartbeat if they were dumb enough to swim into them. No firefish or mandarins for this tank. There's a maxi-mini in the back, and its a sissy by comparison. Just feels sticky.

 

[AJSTITAN14]

Hi,

Love the tank but I'm not sure it's Viridis. Your mantis appears to have 5 ridges on its telson and Virids only has 4. My viridis has the characteristic red around its meral spots and it's eyes are black wheras yours has beautiful pink eyes. Also the scales on yours are yellow where mine has virtually transparent scales in addition the antennules on mine are transparent instead of white.

maybe it's Falcatus but it dosen't sound like yours is all that reclusive.

Just my opinion.

 

[Brickster]

You could call this mantis reclusive. About 75 to 90% of its day is spent in the rock. When it is out, its hunting, collecting rubble, or going from one hole to another. If you see it, it's actively doing something. It seems well are of it's bite size stature. I could have easily misidentified the species.

So in non-mantis news, two rock anemones moved and killed the maxi mini! They blasted it out of its hole and it melted in a few hours! That maxi was happy and healthy two days ago. The rock anemones are mean, mean pieces of coral if they want to be! :eek2:

 

[Islandoftiki]

So in non-mantis news, two rock anemones moved and killed the maxi mini! They blasted it out of its hole and it melted in a few hours! That maxi was happy and healthy two days ago. The rock anemones are mean, mean pieces of coral if they want to be! :eek2:

Lol, nems running around murdering everything in the tank! They are pretty nasty.

Oddly, all of my majanos and aiptasia in the pest tank behave themselves pretty well. The worst thing I've seen happen in the pest tank was a paly tried to eat some xenia.

 

[Brickster]

Thanksgiving feast for the mantis! This is the third time I've used a syringe in this tank and the mantis figured it out. Trying to feed and hold the phone is tricky, lol

Got several good shots today, maybe this would help with an ID?

 

[Fretfreak13]

Awww, he's so cute! What a neat tank!

I also wanted to point out that anemones aren't coral, they're inverts.