mantis shrimp.....

[ProjectSeahorse]

i have a 18 gallon tank.... i used to keep seahorse but then i decided to try something new. I just got a mantis shrimp about 5 feet long..... i got it for $27.... is that a good deal? eventhou i have been in the reef/fish hobby for years now but im a completely new to keeping mantis shrimps..... I heard that they crack glass..... what can i do to prevent that?? and hmmm do they need good water quality?? Please give me all the info you can to me... thanks alot!

PS: the 18 gallon tank is empty, im aware of that mantis shrimp eats everything and kills everything... and that is why i want to keep it =D

 

[ProjectSeahorse]

5 inches... not 5 feet -_- sorry sorry my apology

 

[ProjectSeahorse]

o yah and hmmm.... if im going to take that home from the store..... hmmmm what do i put it in with?? itz going to break the bag for sure!.... so hmm..... any ideas?

 

[ProjectSeahorse]

hmmm help please?? pretty please?? =D

 

[kalim]

I would suggest doing a search of this board since this has been covered several times already. You could also check some of the set-ups of people
in the aquaria section of this site:

http://www.blueboard.com/mantis

With regards to smashing of glass, stomatopods rarely try to break their container unless they are somehow very agitated (ie. roally p*ssed).
The only time this happened to me was when a 9 cm Gonodactylus chiragra broke a temporary plastic container that i had placed it in...it becane very agitated because of the confined space.

plastic bags, because of their "give", are generally fine for holding them, unless they decide to puncture it with the sharp tips of their raptorial appendages.

 

[Isaari]

I made the mistake of putting a glass thermometer in my tank for just a minute to check the temp. I turned away while still holding it. A second later I hear the glass shattering when my mantis took a shot at the bottom of it. Thankfully there were two layers of glass before the mercury.

 

[Gonodactylus]

The only species that I have had break glass are O. scyllarus, G. chiragra, G. platysoma and Hemisquillla californiensis. However, some species are also particularly bad about stabbing bags and plastic containers. Last week I found a population of G. ternatensis. I placed each one in a 1 gal. plastic cubitainer, my favoriate mode of transport to get animals back to the lab. By the time I got home, four had pierced their containers and were high and dry. This species is also difficult to handle because it will often stab rather than smash your finger. Still, it is probably the most dramatically colored of all stomatopods.

Roy