Keeping stomatopods together

[Gonodactylus]

I'm frequently asked what mantis shrimp can be kept together. My answer is usually none. At some point, even if they don't interact, one will molt and that will be the end of it. Once again I just had that point driven painfully home. I have been housing a pair of O. havanensis together in a 150 gal tank. They have a substrate that recreates the open sandy bottom on which they live and both had good burrow systems about a meter apart. The animals frequently visited one another's burrows, sometimes cohabitating for a few minutes and we frequently saw mating in the open. They had been together for 4 months and I was hoping for eggs. The last couple of days I had seen an increase in mating and digging, so I suspected that the female was getting ready to lay. No such luck. This morning I saw her out of her burrow. An hour later I found her partially molted and partially eaten. This is the third time I have lost an O. havanensis while attemping to get them to reproduce in a cohabitation tank.

I'have had similar results with several other species ranging from squillids to gonodactylids. The only species which have not been a problem with one individual killing the other when it molts have been monogamous paired lysiosquillids.

I guess it is time I learn from my own advice and stop trying.

Roy

 

[Absint Reefer]

that's kind of neat they are smart enough to attack when the other is molting