I'm so upset i lost my first mantis shrimp

[lost1st manty:(]

was so excited about my new critter, mail ordered him over night her was $10 overnight shipping was $50, anyways had researched on them for weeks before ordering (mostly on this forum)(even to the extreme of reinforcing all of my glass with plexiglass around inside to protect from their .22 calibur punches) I had it all cut and custom cut to fit perfect snug around the tank and especially under his borrow site extendeding outwards underneath for a distance.Had everything set perfect in his new already established 29 gallon tank stocked with (5), 1 1/2 inch inch blue chromis schooling damsals which I have had a year and I had planned to soon catch later today and give to a friend for his reef tank who lost all his fish in a power outage during an ice storm,the water had perfect parameters. which i was sure to even double check the night before delivery.He arrived looked great was a real spunky wannera (gorgeous coloration prettier than any pic ive seen of them)I havent been this excited since setting up my 150 marine fish tank, he was super health looking nice and filled out and an inch and half long and was making those reknowned clicking noises, even acclimated him with drip over 3 hours givng him a shell to hind in during process, had turned out the light as not to over stress him. Then introduced him on top of his perfect engineered burrow with shells rocks coral and sand and gave him home made pvc front and back entrances like i read to do, basically alls he did soon after introduced which i literally poured him directly into the entrance of his new borrow. i watched him for hours and him, didnt do anything, soon I looked in and he had turned over upside down and wasnt moving at all. I got worried was panicking and then dislodged the pvc and poured him out by now he had turned a real dark green showed no signs of life. I netted him put him back in acclimation bucket with some heavy airation bubbles and tried to recisitate him to no avail , i did everyhting except mouth to mouth on this beautiful critter, man i am depressed he was definately a goner, what a way to launch into mantis shrimp keeping especially hearing all the great sucesses in the forum here,plus i have never lost a fish to date in any of my tanks and have had stuff delvered from all over. I just can't figure out what went wrong , the mail order place said they are packed safely whereas being able to live days and he looked great upon initial arrival and I took every precation with this guy with his acclimation, could he have started molting got stressed out and died, I was also thinking that the delivery service didnt ring my doorbell and his box was sitting inthe hot sun more than it should have( guess its too much to ask to get a knock at the door when you pay 50 bux for a small box overnighted, I was checking every 15 minutes but idiot for some reason left it around the back of my house when i instructed the front specifically, found it when i went to leave my dog out, i even took a personal day from work to do all of this!!!! Well the only postive note is that my large 150 gallon predatory tank surely enjoyed this morsal and he served some good in his demise, my volitan lion almost choked on him ingesting his corpse he spit it and and my green bird wrasse huma trigger and porcupine puffer took turns on all of his legs and extremities, while my high fin snapper was grabbing morsals being shredded about, my panther grouper came up and couldnt get a good shot at him, out of now where came my snowflake moray who grabbed and literally inhaled that poor guy( I am firm believer in not over feeding my fish especially large predatory species) so his and my loss was definatley their enjoyable gain, i didnt even care about the money though expensive loss i just am more emotionally torn I was already really attached to that little guy whom i had already named Mantefer. Well i would appreciate any input form you experts and some encouragement to try this again perhaps, maybe wating to get one off a reef store if they get any off their live rock. thanks for listening and best of luck and continued success with your mantis shrimps!!!!!!!!!

Hobby Experience: 6 months

 

[techreef]

I thought I remember reading that inverts are more vulnerable to copper and nitrates in the water, things that your damsels could probably tough it through. Did you test your water for metals? Sorry to hear the little guy didn't make it. It sounds like you set up the Taj Mahal for it!

 

[Swanwillow]

that really sucks.

I want another mantis pretty badly, but with your tank, you could have gone ahead and gotten a peacock... mine lived in a ten gallon till his death. (wrennarae)