Just thought I'd share my experience with a mantis shrimp with you all. About 8 or 9 years ago I managed to remove a mantis from my tank that was killing most of my fish. It was a brown colored spearer from Fiji that came in on the live rock. I decided to return it to LFS because I didn't know what else to do with it. I thought someone might want to set up a tank for it or something because it was so cool (even though it had killed most of my fish!) When I got to the fish store they told me that mantis shrimp were nothing but trouble and that nobody would want one so they ended up feeding it to an Undulate Triggerfish but I couldn't help thinking that this was wrong. I guess I just want to say that I'm pleased with the change of thinking about mantis shrimp in the last several years!
Mantis story
- Thread starter Springmo
- Start date
Altpers0na-old
Reefer
i didnt think that spearers lost to fish.... at least lil reef fish, not tuna's and sharks n big fish...
Gonodactylus
Premium Member
Of all the fish that feed on stomatopods, triggers and puffers are perhaps the most successful.
Roy
Roy
Pea-brain
In Memoriam
I've noticed that mantis shrimp have a few predators, but very few predators aren't in just as much danger as their prey. Octopuss, triggers, puffers, lionfish. They all have killed, and been killed by mantises. Kind of neat when you think about it. In fact are there any predators that have a very high success rate, as compared 50-70% enjoyed by some? It seems a stomtopods biggest enemy is its own molt cycle. just a thought
Dan
Dan
Gonodactylus
Premium Member
It all boils down to the "Life - Dinner" principle. Predators are not going to risk injury if a particular animal they encounter is only worth dinner but has to potential of inflicting a high cost in turns of injury or energy expenditure. They will usually pass and look for something more worthwhile and/or less risky. (Of course if they pass too often, they will be forced to risk more.)
If you are dinner for a predator, you have nothing to lose but to go all out in trying to escape. That is why we often see threats and all out attacks by prey on potential predators.
Add to this size difference and the story gets really muddled. A six inch trigger has no problem killing and eating a 1 inch stomatopod. Make them both 4 inches and the stomatopod will win. Generally big things eat little things. The only real exceptions are where animals have evolved to hunt cooperatively or employ the use of particularly effective techniques to dispact prey - venoms, traps, particularly effective attachs than take into effect vulnerabilities, etc.
These are some of the reasons that working on predator - prey arms races are so interesting.
Roy
If you are dinner for a predator, you have nothing to lose but to go all out in trying to escape. That is why we often see threats and all out attacks by prey on potential predators.
Add to this size difference and the story gets really muddled. A six inch trigger has no problem killing and eating a 1 inch stomatopod. Make them both 4 inches and the stomatopod will win. Generally big things eat little things. The only real exceptions are where animals have evolved to hunt cooperatively or employ the use of particularly effective techniques to dispact prey - venoms, traps, particularly effective attachs than take into effect vulnerabilities, etc.
These are some of the reasons that working on predator - prey arms races are so interesting.
Roy
