I caught a mantis shrimp in a cast net

[AAASINGER]

To start with i had to that day in my life i had never even heard of a mantis shrimp, thus the story starts.
I was out on the boat with the family looking for bait fish while using my cast net. (this might not be a good forum to talk about fishing, be it that this is for fish lovers and all) back to the story, I threw on a school of bait but they were to way to fast, so as i pulled back my empty net and began to prep it for another strike and then something i had never seen in the 20 yrs i had fished these waters fell to the floor of the boat. so as the captian of the boat i told everyone on board not to touch it! what ever it is? and after a close inspection i picked it up and put in a live well not knowing how lucky i was at that moment in time. but i was amazed by this creatcher and not happy being in the not knowing what it was club so the thought was to keep this and to find out what in the heck it is, and on the world wide web the answers came fast and furious! WOW is all i could think!!!!! i kept this awsome shrimp in a small fish tank with a aireator the first night and the next day had my very first ever real one and loving it.

more to come

 

[wanabebell]

Nice find how big is it

 

[Pea-brain]

If you want to keep it we'll need to give you an ID. Get a picture or describe it the best you can and we can probably give you requirements.

Dan

 

[AAASINGER]

It is 5 inches long and has just molted two days ago. wow again

 

[Pea-brain]

And you got this in Florida? Is it a smasher or spearer? Does it have live rock? how big of a tank? Pictures would be good here.

Dan

 

[Thurge]

Nice catch. I think you will find that there are more fishermen than you think. Just becaue we love fish doesn't mean we don't also like to catch them. The first encounter I had with a mantis was at the bait shop. I was picking up a couple dozen shrimp to toss at some Snook and there was one really funky looking "shrimp". The guy at the bait shop called it a Tiger Shrimp and said they would get an individual on occasion. I wanted it for my tank but so did he, and running the place he trumped me. It was only many many years later that I figured out it was a mantis.

We would love to see some pictures of your catch.

 

[AAASINGER]

Working on uploading a picture, i,m not real good at converting pics to pdf zip ect... images

I,m sure this mantis is a spearer

 

[AAASINGER]

i did put a pic in the photo gallary on here but learning how to put it in a tread

 

[psychodave]

Here you go

 

[DanInSD]

Squilla empusa?

 

[AAASINGER]

Thanks Dave you are the man!

 

[psychodave]

No worries, my pleasure!

 

[shortlegjj]

very cool find

so is it a smasher or spearer?

 

[AAASINGER]

Looking at Roys list it looks like Squilla empusa the same as DanInSD had noted.

That would make it a spearer.