Mantis...

triggerjay

New member
a couple days ago, a member of our club brought me two mantis shrimp. One is red, and the other green. I set up a 5g tank for them, with a skilter 250. When he brought the shrimp, they were still in a rock,... so I added the large rock to the tank. I did not like the way it looked, so today, I removed it, but after doing so, poured coke on it, to make sure I didnt take either of the shrimp out of the tank,. When I poured the coke on it, 3 more mantis came out of the rock, and a crab.. The crab is very small, and appears to be an emerald. So, now I have a 5g nano, with 5 mantis shrimp in it! what a bonus!

Jason
 
Very cool. I would recommend splitting them all up if you want to keep them all. Otherwise you run a very good risk of the tank turning into the Mantis Killing Fields, and being left with only one.
And someone will probably eat the crab if they haven't already.
 
I hear they are hard to ship.... I have 5 I beleive, in the tank.. One large bright green, one large red, and the smaller ones are greyish.. I will try to get pics.. I am going to keep the large ones for myself.... The small ones may become food for the larger ones.. The guy got them from said he has found numerious more in his rock.... along with gorilla crabs, and tons of other hitchikers.. I asked him if he went on a diving trip to get his rock.. I have never seen LR with this much life in it... I do not think it sat anywhere very long.. Its rare in these parts to get rock like that..

Jason
 
The small ones may become food, but it is also quite likely that there will be one or 0 left after the battles that will break out. Especially when they start molting. Really I see no reason you couldn't at least separate the larger ones or give them away. Shipping mantises isn't that hard and there s a sticky at the top of the forum that explains it pretty well.

Dan
 
I put the red large one in my 20g last night... so, the big ones are seperated..They be happy now..but the 20g is glass...

Jason
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10417005#post10417005 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by triggerjay
but the 20g is glass...

Jason

That won't be a problem. The I wouldn't worry about a mantis under 4" even making a mark on standard thickness aquarium glass.

Dan
 
I heard soda water... but all I had on hand was coke... I did it once before also in the past with no ill effects... Stuff comes out FAST, they dont like it one bit... but it doesnt kill them...

Jason
 
They are doing good. I have been thinking of fragging some of my softies in the 55g to put in the 5g tank. I have the green one in the 5g tank, with a skilter 250 on it. The red one is in my 20 long frag tank... they both seem to be happy. The green one is braver than the red one... I see him a lot more..

Jason
 
Finally got some pics of the red one, although not very clear...Mantis are quick, and hard to photograph.:

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Jason
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10417058#post10417058 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Pea-brain
That won't be a problem. The I wouldn't worry about a mantis under 4" even making a mark on standard thickness aquarium glass.

Dan

Yeah, my 5" peacock doesn't really do anything to his glass tank.
I made sure to put acrylic beneath the sandbed though.
 
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