Keeping my Mantis(?)

[cone9]

I caught the mantis in my reef tank two nights ago and now am considering setting up a tank for it(currently housed in my quarantine tank).

Some Questions:

Right now it is just over one inch long, bright green, can't tell if it is a clubber or slasher - with the claws folded up, I find it hard to tell.
When first spotted it was about 4mm long and as thick as a pencil lead. That was about 10 weeks ago. Does that sound like a normal growth rate - or is there another one in my reef?

How large should I expect it to get(and how fast)?

Would a 10 gallon tank be OK?

What do you feed them?

Can you offer any safe tankmates?

Will they kill each other?

Would they harm urchins(black long spined)?

Do they eat sand bed fauna(bristleworms, spaghetti worms, etc)?

Thanks

 

[Agilecrux]

a 10 gallon tank will do fine. Mantis Shrimp do not require lots of space. plus the current size is small so there will be no problem with a 10 gallon tank.

for fauna in the tank mantis shrimps will not bother them.

for feeding. frozen krill, silver sides, frozen brine shrimp.

for growth rates im not sure about that one. i have had a peacock for over 2 months and have seen my mantis only grow about a 1/4 inch. for their max size this depends on the species that you have.

for other critters in their tank. count out snails, hermits( if its a smasher.) any fish that dwell on the bottom. i.e. blenny's, jawfish. if its a spearer then count out any small fish.

i currently have a white ring black sea urchin about 2" and a 5" starfish with my 3" peacock mantis. the only time that mantis will do anything to them is when they get too close to my mantis's den. then the mantis will hit the critter and they back away. this is why if you look at my urchin you will see broken spins.

for mantis shrimps killing each other depends on species again. some mantis shrimp will attack each other but will not kill each other but other species will kill each other. another thing is i wouldnt mix different species together.

to see if you have other mantis's in your tank try to feed some frozen brine shrimp and sit back and relax. if they want food they will come to the call.

 

[cone9]

Can you rx links to look up the species I have?

I've checked a few places(Lurker's, UCMP/Berkley) but haven't seen a pic of mine. It is all bright green - looks like Odontodactylus scyllarus, but without the mottling and other anterior coloration. Came in on Florida LR.

Thanks

 

[Agilecrux]

That i would have to leave to someone else.

i can say this though. there is not a whole lot of sites dedicated to mantis shrimps. Lurkers, UCMP/Berkley, and a couple of other personal websites is all that i know.

another thing that you might want to try is to get a picture of the mantis and post it here. someone out there should be able to ID it for you.

 

[ISFRAEL]

(How large should I expect it to get(and how fast)?)

depends on species, feeding, conditions, etc

(Would a 10 gallon tank be OK?)

for the little bugger youve got it would be perfect, just remember that mantis bury un-eaten food and a little tank also has little room for error! (watch those nitrates etc)

(What do you feed them?)

i feed live shrimp, frozen prawns, squid, white bait (tiny bait fish) and shell fish pieces. sorry agilecrux but i personnally think brine shrimp are too small for a mantis and alot of them would just rot in your tank. ( bad idea in a 10 gal)

(Can you offer any safe tankmates?)

ive kept anenomes, fast fish, snails. urchins and starfish are ok like agilecrux suggested.
(these animals are mantis safe but they might not be safe with a mantis!)
ive only lost 2 snails so far, but i like to think my boy has munchies whenever he likes so i only keep snails in my tanks!
they eat algae and he eats them if he wants! ( its fun to watch a mantis when he/she's bashing)

i dont like hermits with my mantis as i have seen them eating one of my mantis when hes was vunerable molting!

(Will they kill each other?)
i agree with agilecrux here!

(Would they harm urchins(black long spined)?)
nope!

(Do they eat sand bed fauna(bristleworms, spaghetti worms, etc)?)

they are hunters and eat meaty foods.
they wont eat sandbed fauna but they will move the sandbed around alot while burrowing (and frequent renovations) and they might kill alot of life off by doing this?
they are bulldozers!

i have a 1" mantis who just love his liverock cave (he always has his eye poking out) and i have noticed that the little ones actually prefer to have a lr cave rather than a burrow, so give it plenty of lr with natural caves and sit back and enjoy!

what kind of filtration will you use and what kind of substrate are you using, and how deep are you gonna have it?

go get one cos you wont regret it!
hope i helped?

isfrael

 

[moviegeek]

Does it look like this?
http://www.blueboard.com/mantis/pics/odscdt.htm

Or does it not have any mottling by the head at all?

 

[Agilecrux]

ISFRAEL i agree

ISFRAEL i agree

ISFRAEL i agree with you. i just seen that a couple of people do feed mantis's brine shrimp so i just added it to the list.

were do you get your live shrimp from btw?

 

[ISFRAEL]

i collect the shrimp from a local beach where i go fishing.
its full of rock pools that are absolutely full of these clear little shrimp that are about a 1/2" to 1" long.
the mantis loves them so i grab 4 or 5 everytime i go fishing.

i love to watch the mantis chase them and.......well you know the rest!

 

[Gonodactylus]

A bright green smasher from live rock in Florida suggest Neogonodactylus wennerae. This and other Neogonodactylus have the ability to change color and pattern. It is a slow process taking a couple of molts, but typically an animal living in rubble in a deep sea grass bed will be green. Put it in a rock on sand and it will gradually turn mottled sandy colored. Pseudosquilla ciliata, a common spearer, does an even better job at changing color. Also several species of stomatopod are sexually color dimorphic or change color with age. For all of these reasons, it is difficult to determine species for many species based just on color.

As for size, Neogonodactylus recruit from the plankton and settle as postlarvae when they are 7-9 mm long. The largest species of Neogonodactylus from the Caribbean (N. oerstedii, N. curacaoensis, N. bredini, N. wennerae) don't get larger than about 65 m - 3 inches. It takes them 5 or 6 years to get that big. Small animals grow faster than large ones both because they molt more often and grow more with each molts. For N. bredini, the species that I have worked with most, I can provide the following growth estimates from field data:

settlement as postlarvae 8 mm

6 momths 16 mm

1 year 25 mm (first reproduction)

2 year 35 mm

3 year 42 mm

4 year 50 mm

5 year 55 mm


As for food, we use live brine shrimp for most of our animals below about 3 in.

Roy