Gonodactylus, got some questions...

[Isis]

I hope you can help me with these:
I was wondering, why my mnatis is constantly trying to attack the damsels we recently put into his tank? Is it that they keep swiping at him with their tails and sort of taunting him?
Next... I keep giving him one certain blue legged crab and everyday I find the crab stuck in between the plates of the skeleton of a plate coral. It is always in the same place and I don't know how it gets there? When I give it to him, I hear him snapping at it and then when i comein the next morning, there it is, in the coral. Why?
What is a good food to give them and how much( how often)?
I feed him snails and crabs but he has a preference and eats the snails first and then wil eat the crabs.
Last but not least... how big of a tank should I get for him? right now he is in a 10 gallon, but he also has the two blue damsels and a few snails and crabs.
Ok I lied... This is the last one I promise! How long do they live in captivity?
Thanks for putting up with me I just can't seem to find much on the manits shrimp anywhere and thought you'd be my greatest asset in taking care of him...

 

[Death Shrimp99]

Mantis shrimp eat fish like damsels in the wild. They are agressive and you cant have that much tankmates with them. feeding snails hermits and crabs are fine to get them to eat. They might kill the mantis while its molting. You should try to get it to eat frozen food like squid and silverslides. 10 gallon is kinda small for one but you will do fine with it. They live over 10 years. What species do you have, can you post a pic? Find all the info you need here - http://www.blueboard.com/mantis/ Its Gonodactylus(Dr Caldwell's)webpage

 

[ISFRAEL]

blueboard is run by a guy called airlan san juan, but dr caldwell has a nice site on the berkley site which was built for the aquarius mission!
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/aquarius/

i have never seen a smasher eat a fish personnally but they will kill a fish. mine killed a blue chromis just because it was near his home.

 

[Death Shrimp99]

oh i feel dumb now! I thought it was dr caldwells site because it had lots of his experinces stated on there and always mentions his name. Yes, i agree that was i said was wrong that they dont normally prey on fish in the wild but in captivity they will kill fish in defence and mabe not eat them because their not hungry. But i bet a mantis would eat a fish before he starved. Mine eat silverslides and their fish. I kinda got the feeling of smashers killing fish from when it said on the lurkers guide that 2 Odontodactylus scyllarus killed 6 clown triggers in 1 night. Smashers are very agressive when it comes to defending their burrow. I wonder if mine can do that!

 

[Gonodactylus]

Isis,

They live for several years in the field. In captivity, if you get an adult (> 4 inches), they can live four or five years, although most people find that these animals develop problems molting and die after a couple of years.

O. sycllarus are territorial and will take a swipe at animals that come near them. They will occasionally eat a fish, but they really prefer other prey such as crabs, snails, worms, clams, etc. The story about an O. scyllarus taking out half a dozen clown triggers probably came from me. Several years ago a local importer gave me a mantis shrimp after it took out his entire stock of triggers.

Size of tank is not nearly as important as water quality. I have several O. scyllarus that have been in 10-15 gal tanks for months. The problem with small tanks is that there is little margin for error. If you lose some uneaten food in the system, it can kill the animal very quickly. If the tank is well cycled and you keep it clean of uneaten food, you should not have a problem.

Roy

 

[Isis]

Thanks for your help. do they raise live silversides? I have some frozen but he doesn't like them. he will only eat the small blue legged crabs and snails. He used to like shrimp pellets but I think I goofed when I started to feed him live food, and now he won't even look at them, he just blows them away. The damsels like them though so it isn't a problem.
What do you think about upgrading to a 20 gallon tank? would that be sufficient to hold him and two damsels(and a couple of snails?)
Thanks for you help again! I would love to see all the research you are doing with them...

 

[Gonodactylus]

Many stomatopods are quite picky in captivity and will only eat the food that they are used to. It can take weeks to "force" them to switch, but it is my experience that most will eventually switch rather than starve. If you don't offer alternatives, they will eventually begin accepting what food item is offered as long as it is palatable to them.

For a gonodactylid, fish is not a particularly good food (at least I don't have much luck with it). Your animal would be better off with a diet of commercial pellets or freeze dried krill supplemented with clams, snails and crabs as available. Many of our smaller stomatopods do fine on a diet primarily made up of live brine shrimp supplemented with a little nutrient additive such as "Selco".

As for tank size, a 20 would be better than a 10, but primarily in terms of maintaining a stable tank. If you are trying to keep the stomatopod with fish, I would suggest a fair amount of 3-D structure that will allow the fish to hang out above the mantis shrimp. Live or fake branching corals work well for this.

Roy

 

[Isis]

Thanks again for the info! You are truely a wonderful person!
I am going to switch the mantis as soon as I have an opened tank. any suggestions to get him out of the tank without getting hurt(either of us?)

 

[Gonodactylus]

Don't worry too much about hurting the stomatopod. They are tough. I have dropped more than my share on the floor with no harm. Just rinse them off with sea water and toss them back in. We usually transfer animals with a simple net. The only real risk is having the animal stab a net and get its raptorial appendage caught. If you or the animal tries to vigorously to pull free, it can rip of the appendage - not fatal, but not nice either. If this should happen, lay the net and animals on the table, grab a towel and put it over the animals so that you can just see the raptorial appendage, and while holding the animal down (it won't struggle that much once confined), start cutting the net away until the raptorial appendage is free

 

[Isis]

I just wanted to tell you that I fed him some frozen krill today and he took it! Don't know if he ate it though. he never actually eats anything outside of his burrow. I guess he is worried that the damsels will steal it from him...

 

[judo1]

ooops... double

 

[judo1]

Whenever my little green guy decides he doesn't want to eat something, I find it outside of his burrow... look all around the outside of his burrow, and on the other side of any rocks nearby, if you can

HTH
-JoN

 

[ISFRAEL]

i actually wait a few minute after my mantis has taken his food in his burrow as they often take food and then push it out a few minutes later. (mine does anyway!)

i used to skewer my mantis food on a long wooden skewer and slide it into the the substrate near the mantis burrow, this way they can eat but cant take the food and bury it if un-eaten. no nitrate problems!

 

[Isis]

now that sounds like a good idea to me.