Holy cow ! Mantis shrimp!!

I stopped reading replies and jumped straight down here. Go get in the mantis shrimp forum, and they'll set you right. A lot of the info on here is bad. A little guy like that will stay small and be no danger to glass unless you were trying to keep it in some like 2gallon glass tank with <1/8th inch glass. That .22 bullet stuff? That's the acceleration not the power of a .22. Different things.

As far as predatory. They will be a terror to small hermits and snails, but if you have one of the many small species. You will be fine with most fish. I've kept a common Wennerae with fish for over a year now. He leaves easy targets like sea cucumber and star fish alone. I've had him with a scooter blenny (not as long I'll admit) as well as an adult mandarin. Cleaner and coral banded shrimp. No problems. I'd only worry if you had small/young mandarin or other tiny and low lying fish.

Mine begs for food or otherwise knows that my turkey baster provides it. The worst you should expect is it maybe pushing frags around if it decides to make a burrow out of a rocket where you have frag plugs. (Mine has a cantaloup sized rock he's made a warren out of, punching new tunnel entrances out and plugs the holes randomly with whatever he can find.)


Edit: Also depending on species yours may change after a few molts. My Wenn. started off kinda reddish also. He's now a bright lime green which makes him more interesting to look at.
 
+1 ^ They are interesting creatures and he will do well in your sump! I'm glad your thinking of keeping him! Yes, go to the mantis forum! They will steer you in the right direction! Very valuable info and help ID and sex your species if you post pics. Before you know it you'll be giving him his own display tank.

On a side note, only certain species get shell rot (mainly larger peacocks)

Good luck !!!
 
wow, awesome red color. I recommend don't' add any coral or fish, snail, etc.
1st : your shrimp will eat all your coral and fish, snail
2st : if your tank look empty , add damsel because they are cheap and strong. If they disappear one day, you know what happens with your expensive fish if you put them together :D
I keep my boy in 20G with 2 damsel for a year, so far so peaceful :D
 
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Mantis DO NOT EAT Coral. A 1 inch smasher doesn't magically take out 5 inch tangs.

A peacock or other large one as well as spearers are the ones where you start getting into having to keep single species tank.
 
Most LFS wil lbuy them from you or give you store credit. They are simple to catch too. I used a 1 liter bottle with a mirror in the bottom along side a small piece of food. He didn't care less about the food. He did break my mirror though...
 
I agree 100% with Fitz19d, if you intend to keep the mantis please get over to the mantis shrimp forum and talk to some of the guys over there. Dr. Roy is a mantis shrimp god, and he has the answers to EVERYTHING. I've done plenty of research on these little guys, and I can say with confidence that most of the information presented in this thread is false. The most important thing for you to do right now is get a few solid pictures of the little bugger and post them up in the mantis shrimp forum for ID. Once you have it ID'd you can verify the special needs (if any) of the species and decide wether or not you want to conform your tank to it. If you aren't able to completely replicate its needs, please post it up for free/sale/trade in the mantis forum. There are many people who would give their left hand for a mantis shrimp, including myself.
 
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