hello mantis lovers

phenom5

Member
hey all,
i was at the in-laws for turkey dinner...my father-in-law wanted to show me something he's come across in his 125g. he recently added some LR...he had his tank as a FOWLR for the last ~81/2 years, but my reef tank and a vacation to the Keys has renewed his interest in his tank and he wants a reef...anyway, so he added some LR about 6 mos ago, and some coral packs here and there. so tonight, just before we left he fed his tank to see if the thing he's come across would come out. i ended up getting a pretty good look at it with his diving light...it was really small and pretty skittish (spell?). it was red, had one enlarged claw...looked like a mantis to me. now, i know that you guys can't ID it from that description, but i looked at that page thats linked in the sticky thread in this forum. i noticed that page mentioned 500+ species...so where do i begin? are there mantis species that stay small and are harmless? do pistol shrimp hitchhike in on LR very often? cause it could be a pistol shrimp, i'm not sure how to tell the difference...

basically, i'm just trying to figure out what this is, and figure out if my father-in-law should be would worried it. his attitude is...its so small and timid, it can be harmful...

thanks for any help you guys can give, sorry if this doesn't make sense...had some wine with the turkey.:smokin:
 
If it has one enlarge claw, then it is a Pistol Shrimp.
They look like crayfish, though usually a lot more colorful.
Pistols aren't a bad addition to a reef, and (if he can get an ID on species), he can get a nice goby to pair with it.


-Ron
 
hey, whats up majestic. we certainly would have been willing to give it to you.

thanks for the help Uriel, i'm officially turning the investigation back over to my father-in-law. now that i have a better idea of what it is i can steer him in the right direction.
 
Most definitely a pistol shrimp I have one as well harmless and fun to watch although the popping worried me at first :) unfortunately one of the species of pistols that wont cohabitate with a goby but a great addition nonetheless
 
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