mantis observations, some fight pics (image intensive)

[shanebeall]

Well, I've had John Galt for about 2 weeks now, maybe. So far he's eaten one Astrea snail, and two crayfish.

He's housed with two hermit crabs, and two really big turbo snails. He leaves the big turbos alone, but he plays with the hermits (picks them up and hurls them at the glass whenever they go near his den.)

I've done a little fooling around with him, and found that he won't go after a green object (green straw), but he will go after a red object (red straw).

Also, he seems intelligent in the way he hunts. If he's chasing the crayfish down, he won't follow it. It's like he understands the layout of the tank, and he'll duck around and underneath rocks, to corner the crayfish, or to give himself an advantage (sneak up from behind.)

Anyways, just two neat things I observed, and now for the promised pictures!

<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v14/shaneo/tank/mantisattack01.jpg"></img>
I think in this picture, you can see him punching the crayfish. What are the "smashers" called? Anyways, that punch really messed up the crayfishes face, which I have a picture of in a little.

<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v14/shaneo/tank/mantisattack03.jpg"></img>
Crayfish trying desperatly not to get pulled into the cave.

<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v14/shaneo/tank/mantisattack04.jpg"></img>
Crayfish got away, so he decided to punch it a few times.

<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v14/shaneo/tank/mantisattack06.jpg"></img>
After that face shot, the crayfishes head. Slightly dented in above the right eye (left in the picture), and in the water flow, the eye flapped around a lot. Felt kind of bad.

<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v14/shaneo/tank/mantisattack07.jpg"></img>

<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v14/shaneo/tank/mantisattack10.jpg"></img>

<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v14/shaneo/tank/mantisattack11.jpg"></img>

<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v14/shaneo/tank/mantisattack12.jpg"></img>
He finally hit him hard enough to knock him out, and he drags him away...

<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v14/shaneo/tank/mantisattack13.jpg"></img>
Seems everyone else has a picture of their mantis poking his/her head out...so I needed one!

<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v14/shaneo/tank/mantisattack15.jpg"></img>
An almost full body shot. He's coloured up a bit more since I've gotten him. He's (temporarily) in a 2.5 gallon glass tank with 18watts of power compact lighting over him. I intend to move him over to either a 10 gallon, or the 15 gallon sump of my (soon to be) 36bow reef tank.

Well, I just wanted to share those pics, I'm just getting into macro photography. All of them were taken with an Olympus D-460 digital camera, no flash, but the tank lights were on, and the room was illuminated. Let me know what everyone thinks! If anyone would like to use this pictures for anything, let me know!

 

[iCam]

Very nice photos! Thanks for the entertainment.

 

[shanebeall]

Thank you for the compliment, <b>AND</b> for replying.

 

[mrbncal]

Interesting animals... very nice camera work. How big is the green fella?

 

[Uriel]

I actually take many shots of my mantis (6 of them...) taking down prey.
Unfortunately, they are video clips, and RC doesn't have the space to house them, I am afraid.

Smashing snails isn't much excitement, but watching my Peacock chasing and collecting ghost shrimp like some mad kid after eggs on Easter is a blast. I also have many clips of them taking crabs down.


-Ron

PS: Nice little picture/story, by the way...

 

[Parvonety]

Great shots, how long did the battle last??

 

[mikehulen]

Great pics!

Unfortunately I was not able to get shots of an engagement that occurred in my tank yesterday morning.

I finally found one mantis shrimp in my 75G yesterday morning hiding in a rock. I got him out and had him sitting on the sand near the front of the tank. He was about 3/4 inch long, red and looks like he was a spearer instead of a smasher. I turned around to get my camera, and when I turned back, a 5 inch Gulf Shrimp (1 of 5 in my tank) made an immediate bee-line for the mantis as it was trying to hide under a large shell. Gulf shrimp grabbed him, fled to rear of tank and gobbled him down before I could get my hands in to break up the fight. For several hours the Gulf shrimp was prancing around the tank with its red prize clearly visible thru it transparent carapace.

I know I still have at least 2 more clicking shrimp in my tank, whether they be Mantis or Pistol I do not know since I have not seen them yet.

 

[Uriel]

Gulf shrimp?
As in that-which-gets-fried-and-served-with-sweet-n-sour-sauce sort of shrimp?

Er, I didn't know that they were predatory...
Are you sure that the 3/4 inch guy was a Mantis? Several pods look similar (well, at least to freaked out aquarium keepers who post here regularly, anyways...).


-Ron

 

[iCam]

I actually take many shots of my mantis (6 of them...) taking down prey.
Unfortunately, they are video clips, and RC doesn't have the space to house them, I am afraid.

If you ever get the clips hosted on another site, please do share!

 

[mikehulen]

Gulf shrimp?
As in that-which-gets-fried-and-served-with-sweet-n-sour-sauce sort of shrimp?

Er, I didn't know that they were predatory...
Are you sure that the 3/4 inch guy was a Mantis? Several pods look similar (well, at least to freaked out aquarium keepers who post here regularly, anyways...).


-Ron

Yup, those are the ones. Fascinating to watch in my 75g. On occasion they bury themselves in the sand so that all you can see are 2 black eyeballs and whiskers above the sand bed. Other times they attack the glass in dominance games (I guess) against their reflection.

I did not know they had predatory inclinations either, until I watched 2 of them go after my blue-leg hermits, strip them out of their shells and gobble them down, and then this escapade yesterday. Interestingly enough, they do not go after the loads of glass (ghost) shrimp I have in my tank from Galveston collection trip several weeks ago; my gorilla crabs have a field day with those in my refugium. They also have no interest, apparently, in my scarlet leg crabs.

As far as whether this was a mantis or not, it sure looked like one from most of the pictures I have seen here and at GrimReefers, all the way to the raptoral appendages that looked like sharp needles. As a newbie, I will readily admit I could be mistaken. I do wish I had gotten pictures before he ended up on the wrong end of the food chain. I was actually excited to find the little guy, because he would have given me a reason to setup my 20g tank.

 

[8BALL_99]

haha very kewl,,,

They only last about 2 hits when Thor gets a holed of them.

 

[shanebeall]

If anyone has any video they'd be willing to send me of their mantis attacking, I'd appreciate it. My e-mail is shanejbeall@comcast.net, AIM is xbeardedxladyx. Also, if you subscribe to this thread, I'll be posting more feeding pictures any time I feed him.

 

[rwhhunt]

Boris was engaged in a 15 minute gladiator match.

Peacock Manits Vs. Ill-tempered Crawfish. The crawfish was actually the fiestiest one Ive ever found. They Crawfish usually take 2-4 blows to be subdued, this guy took closer to 20 shots to the point where its entire exoskeleton was cracked and shattered and stripped of a claw before giving in.

 

[rwhhunt]

shanebeall: what species mantis is that?

 

[shanebeall]

G. chiagras Sorry I didn't list that in the original post, seems like it would have been important. And update: he molted for me last night, so maybe this Thursday I'll pick up something sweet for him to eat.

 

[rwhhunt]

what other interesting critters do you feed to your mantis? I dont want to spend +$20 on salt water cleaner shrimp, but it would also be nice to give him a challenge for dinner...

 

[shanebeall]

I was thinking of doing something like that. A waste of money, but it'd make for some nice photos.

 

[NYC ReeFeRZ]

wow....them crawdads are vicious!!! Watch your fingers when doing tankwork! He is a beauty

 

[Uriel]

As far as live food goes, I feed mine snails, ghost shrimp, fiddler crabs and brackish 'red' crabs from the LFS.

Hoping to someday get a shipment of TBS full of Gorilla crabs, which I will try to keep in a 30 gallon sump (I hope that the monsters breed in captivity...).

-Ron