I work at a LFS , and on our last shipment of liverock we found all sorts of interesting things... I like to look through the bottom of the box after the rock is removed, because there is always an interesting assortment of creatures crawling about in the bottom of the boxes. Anyhow, amongst thee crabs, worms, and other strange reef dwellers, we stumbled across a mantis shrimp. My co-workers put him in a bag with water and were showing him off throughout the day. When I saw him, I thought he was really cool and asked if I could have him. They couldn't really figure out why I would want him, but agreed anyways.
I'd have to say that he is about 3/4" long, and mabey 1/4 across. He came in on a shipment from Jakarta and i'm sure that will help in the ID. I looked at the ID thread posted at the top, but i'm not sure that he looks like any of those.
The other thing I am wondering about is his behavior.(SP?) He lives (temporaraly) in a 1 gal kritter keeper with a tiny powerhead for areation, a small chunk of live rock, no sand, and as of yesterday, an 7.5w HYDOR mini heater. The first 2 days I had him he crawled into a hole in the rock and was chillin in there. On the third day ha came out of the rock and was lying upside down on the bottom. I thought he was dead, but an inspection with the maglight proved that he was still wigiling about ans curling his tail up around himself. He was like this when I got home from work, so I decided that mabye the water was too cold, so I added the heater. 24 hours has passed and he's still upside down on the bottom. He looks like he might be eating from the water coulmn, so I dumped a bit of marine snow in there, and yesterday he took flake food from me. Could he be molting, is it still too cold(don't actualy know temp, i'l find out after I get a thermometer from work tomorow) does he want sand, or more rock, or... I'm stumped.
Any help would be apreciated, Thanks!
PIX:
I'd have to say that he is about 3/4" long, and mabey 1/4 across. He came in on a shipment from Jakarta and i'm sure that will help in the ID. I looked at the ID thread posted at the top, but i'm not sure that he looks like any of those.
The other thing I am wondering about is his behavior.(SP?) He lives (temporaraly) in a 1 gal kritter keeper with a tiny powerhead for areation, a small chunk of live rock, no sand, and as of yesterday, an 7.5w HYDOR mini heater. The first 2 days I had him he crawled into a hole in the rock and was chillin in there. On the third day ha came out of the rock and was lying upside down on the bottom. I thought he was dead, but an inspection with the maglight proved that he was still wigiling about ans curling his tail up around himself. He was like this when I got home from work, so I decided that mabye the water was too cold, so I added the heater. 24 hours has passed and he's still upside down on the bottom. He looks like he might be eating from the water coulmn, so I dumped a bit of marine snow in there, and yesterday he took flake food from me. Could he be molting, is it still too cold(don't actualy know temp, i'l find out after I get a thermometer from work tomorow) does he want sand, or more rock, or... I'm stumped.
Any help would be apreciated, Thanks!
PIX:
