Mantis ID please

[OrionN]

I got some rock from Tampa Bay Rock for my 65 gal reef. I got a bunch of rock full of life, minimal to no cycle with shipment. The tank is really doing great.
With the rock, there are at lest 2 mantis shrimps the club type, not spear. The body is orange brown, about 1.5 inches in length. Both are really doing well. So far they are busting and eating barbicels on the rocks. Taken pictures of these guys are difficult to say the least. I got two fair looking picture of the face. Anybody with knowledge and steer me as to what species, from geographical information, as to what species these may be?

 

[liverock]

wennera

cool critters!

RTichard TBS
www.tbsaltwater.com

I got some rock from Tampa Bay Rock for my 65 gal reef. I got a bunch of rock full of life, minimal to no cycle with shipment. The tank is really doing great.
With the rock, there are at lest 2 mantis shrimps the club type, not spear. The body is orange brown, about 1.5 inches in length. Both are really doing well. So far they are busting and eating barbicels on the rocks. Taken pictures of these guys are difficult to say the least. I got two fair looking picture of the face. Anybody with knowledge and steer me as to what species, from geographical information, as to what species these may be?

 

[OrionN]

Thanks Richard. The rocks are great, full of life. Send in water which was really well pack. I got 6 boxes but the airline inverted two of the box which cause them to leak. Fortunately this stupidity happened near the end of the journey (I think). Not all the water drain our so it was not a significant problem (other than got my car a little wet with salt water)
Also send along was a bunch of corals/one rock anemone and many colorful sponges.

Highly recommended

 

[nmotz]

Yeah, nice little Neogonodactylus Wennerae. I have a Neogonodactylus Oerstedii in a nano tank and really enjoy how active he is. Constantly smashing snails and coming out to gather rocks and macroalgae for his burrow.

 

[OrionN]

So, there are at least 2 of them in my 65 gal tank. Do you guys think it will be OK with the fish. I plan to feed them fairly well so they won't decimated my hermit crabs. Right now they are eating a lot of the barnacles and bivalves on the rock. I imagine that they won't go after the hermit crabs until the barnacles are gone. I have to start to feed them with bits of food and see if I can keep the full so they wont kill my crabs.
If I cannot, I will likely try to trap them and put them in their own species aquarium

 

[liverock]

So, there are at least 2 of them in my 65 gal tank. Do you guys think it will be OK with the fish. I plan to feed them fairly well so they won't decimated my hermit crabs. Right now they are eating a lot of the barnacles and bivalves on the rock. I imagine that they won't go after the hermit crabs until the barnacles are gone. I have to start to feed them with bits of food and see if I can keep the full so they wont kill my crabs.
If I cannot, I will likely try to trap them and put them in their own species aquarium

Feed them raw shrimp...their favorite!

 

[OrionN]

They are actually on the same side of the aquarium. The same large rock. Maybe I have a pair. I hope I can keep both of them together.

 

[Calappidae]

Stomatopods don't get along together. The only species that can really pair is Lysiosquillina Maculata (male and female only) while everything else eventually kills the other.

Fish wise, there is no guarentee. If it's worth the risk you can leave them in there, but they usually will kill CuC.

 

[OrionN]

I guess I will have to think about remove at least one of the two to a separate tank.

 

[OrionN]

Picture today after both eat a piece of squid

 

[EI Gringo]

Actually calappidae to the best of my knowledge almost all lysiosquilloids share the characteristics of L.macs, I think, but I could be wrong, squillids also are monogamous. Amazing animals. I have had a few of my mantis live together too. My p.Ciliata escaped and lived along with a g.smithii for a full week whilst I was on holiday :L I also was given a hitchhiker for free and I chucked it into a 100L tank with a peacock and never had any problems, the peacock didn't care to attack it and the g.viridis was just keeping to itself. I'd be surprised if they went for eachother in a big tank to be honest, even if they came face to face I reckon they'd just threaten eachother and guard their own territory, they are ofcourse inherently aggressive though.

 

[Calappidae]

I don't know about squillids since most die in captivity anyway (and roy never mentioned), L. maculata roy has stated particularly pairs. He's also paired some Odontodactylids, but they all eventually killed each other.

I would assume other Lysiosquillinas would pair, but I can't say surely enough as L. maculata, going by original source info. If I never seen or heard of something working out, I'd prefer to just disclude it, unless roy did mention somewhere other lysiosquillinas that I'm forgetting or missing.

 

[OrionN]

Hey, I fed frozen squid to my Mantises. I did not add live squid to my tank

 

[OrionN]

How often should I feed them?
Both are about 1.5 to 2 inches in length. I want to feed them enough so that they leave my fish alone. I like to put a Mandarin into this tank.
I feed them each a piece of frozen squid 1 cm2 and about 1/16 inches thick. They grasp it and dragged the food back to their den. I assumed they ate the food.
This morning I don't see them around. Finally I saw the eye stake of one and see him. I attempted to feed them again with the same amount of food but the one that I see only look the food over and mane no attempt to take it from the holder. I guess both of them are full.

 

[nmotz]

There unfortunately isn't any way to guarantee 100% that they won't attack your fish, but if you feed them frozen shrimp/squid/krill every other day I think you'll have a better chance. Small Gonodactylids aren't usually as aggressive as larger species like G. Chiragra or Odontodactylus Scyllarus, but they are opportunistic hunters and will not hesitate to strike even if they aren't really hungry.

 

[Calappidae]

Hey, I fed frozen squid to my Mantises. I did not add live squid to my tank

Squillids are a group of mantis shrimp,

Example: Squilla empusa, Squilla mantis, etc

Incase there was confusion there.

 

[OrionN]

Thanks Joe.

I have been feeding them MWF. They are in my office tank so weekend feeding is not practical. After I feed them and the next day they disappeared into the rock. How ever MWF bright and early they are hanging out waiting for food. It seem they learn very fast. Smart animals. I am sure Sunday they are out waiting also.

 

[nmotz]

Yeah they'll do that....mantis shrimp really do eat a lot. My N. Oerstedii eats several snails per day and would probably eat more if he wasn't exhausted from all the smashing!

 

[EI Gringo]

Calappidae if you go to YouTube and search squilla empusa I think there is a pair sharing a burrow in one video. I'll have a look for it now

 

[EI Gringo]

Couldn't find it :L nevermind