mantis shrimp need help

[liamblair1987]

hey guys...my bro has a 30 gallon tank with some live rock...it has some little corals etc on it... he also has two percula clows..a shrimp...and he did have an anenome..

recently the anenome died...he thinks its cause of some sort of infection?

i believe its the mantis shrimp...its only tiny..we discovered it last nite making its self a burrow...whats the best way to get him out to identify to make sure it is....we are pretty positive it is....

how long before they starting doing damage?

thanks guys

and if anyone lives in aus and wants it...swing me a pm

 

[justinl]

a "tiny" (under 2.5 inches) mantis can't do any damage. not until it grows out a bit. I don't see how it would hurt an anemone, let alone why.

to get it out, use the bottle trap. it may take some time, but I doubt that matters. If the shrimp of all things survived this long, I highly doubt the removal of a mantis is urgent.

got a pic of the mantis?

 

[DanInSD]

Anemones are notoriously difficult to keep alive. They require perfect water parameters, lots of light, just the right amount of flow, and then... most still die. Do some research on http://www.wetwebmedia.com.

That being said, a small stomatopod won't hurt an anemone.

Dan

 

[Pea-brain]

I agree. The only anenomes that can live under less than perfect conditions (from what I've read) are bubble tip anenomes, tube anenomes,and carpet anenomes. And the only on thatwon't eat your fish out of that list is bublle tips. If it is small enough I would leave it in there. If it gets big enough to start a problem take it out. The best way to minimize the chance it will do damage is to target feed it with little bits of shrimp or other frozen uncooked seafood.Don't worry about non-bottom dwelling fish. It is very unlikely that most mantises will attack swimming fish, though it has happened.

 

[DanInSD]

Actually, tube anemones are quite fish-safe -- much more so than bubble-tips! We had one of each in a tank, and the BTA regularly ate fish. One of the main reasons that we got rid of it (that, and it was taking over the tank). The tube anemone hasn't killed anything other than mysis.

Dan

 

[Pea-brain]

I'm just stating what I heard. But from the sound of it "taking over the tank" sounds like a carpet anenome, but I don't know much about anenomes anyways. But this is a mantis shrimp forum, so lets not go into discussion about anenomes "cough" I know nothing about anenomes and would lose "cough"