Need help raising baby Mantis Shrimp

[vapester]

.....today while fishing off So. Cali. I hooked and caught a really cool rock with a gargonian and a few small like hammer type corals. Well to my surprise when I put it in my tank, under closer examination, there are at least 40 tiny Mantis shrimp that look of the spearer species. I'm gonna have to put it in my little 3.5 gallon tank with only an undergravel filter, heater, and basic light. It wouldn't do any good putting them in my Mantis tank (peacock smasher about 5 inches)as he eats almost anything, and my seahorses have alredy picked at them in my main tank that it's in. It's strange though, because they are all from 1/8 - 1/4 of an inch and have clearly visible raptoral appendages, stand upright alot on developing legs at the base of their bodies, yet don't have the large.........very large eyes yet, which all mantis' have. Any tips on raising them? I figure if they are hardy enough in that little tank i'll feed them baby brine. Any suggestions?

 

[XxAngelzDustxX]

If you don't mind me asking, where was it that you were fishing? How far is it from Burbank and would you recommend that spot?

Sorry I can't help with the Mantis...

 

[vapester]

....um, we went fishing out of San Pedro, which is right next to Long Beach. Caught a bunch of Calico Bass today, I don't know if i'd recommend it. Though the Halibuts do hit pretty hard there time to time. I just put the critters im my little tank, i guess i'll see how they do. I just hate to do it because I doubt the corals will survive in there too long.

 

[Optyma]

What color are they? if they are like a tanish or whiteish color, they most likely sound like amphipods. Buuuttt thats just my opinion. hopefully they are mantis shrimp, that would be cool.

brian

 

[vapester]

....well which ones are amphipods? Those are the almost centipede looking tiny shrimp that are common with live rock and pop up eventually in most reef systems right? They're not those guys. And they're not baby camel or peppermint type shrimp as i've had those before. There is one that stands about 3/4 upright. They look more like land preying mantis than even grown mantis shrimp do. I dunno, they're a trip. I put some Selcon in there with a little reef solution, and there are some amphipods and also almost mysis like tiny shrimp i'm trying to sorta breed, and i dumped some brine shrimp eggs too. We'll see, i've had a couple failed experiments in that tank. Once I bought a blue-ring octo and too my surprise it revealed eggs about a month later. Well there was nothing in there except one flame scallop. Well.....once again to my delight one day I finally saw like 2 dozen or more baby octos swimming around. the next say, they disappeared. I figure they swam into the scallop one by one, it's only like a 3 gallon tank or so. Anyway, i'll keep the results posted.


FWIW, Mantis Shrimp are very cool "people". I've often collected the stranger marine life like Cuddlers and Octos, and I dunno....but it's a close tie.

 

[dc]

Here's a link to a picture of an amphipod. They can crawl around with their front bodies erect, but their tails tend to curl under a little. Scroll down to Andro's picture.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=207442

 

[Gonodactylus]

What you are describing are not stomatopods. They are caprellid amphipods - commonly called skeleton shrimp. They do have "raptorial appendages", although they are used for grasping, not striking. They are common of the California coast and species range in size from 1/4 to a little over 1 inch.

Roy