Questions about Gonodactylus Smithii

[billn]

Hi, I finally id'd my mantis shrimp that has been living in my overflow for the past 6 months. It appears to be G. Smithii. It has deep purple meral sports with a thin white ring around the purple. It came on fiji rock and looks just like the ones that have been id'd as smithii on this board before.

I was wondering how big do they get? Mine is close to a year old now I think and still only about 1.5" long?

What is a good diet for them? I have not been feeding him at all so I am not sure what he has been eating in my overflow.

I am planning on just putting him back in the tank. I do have a pair of tiger pistol shrimp who are quite large. Are they a threat to the mantis? Can they coexist in a 200 gal reef?

Thanks for any info.

 

[Gonodactylus]

Maximum size for a G. smithii is around 9 cm. Most don't make it past 7 or 8 cm. Maximum age is only a guess, but I would say 6 or 7.

They will eat a wide variety of foods. Try snails, amphipods, shrimp, krill, etc. This is one of the easier and more enjoyable stomatopods to keep. My only complaint about them is that they seem to spend more tiime than most stomatopods chipping away at their cavities. I used to keep in my office a large G. smithii that I trained to threaten when someone approached its tank. I got so tired of listening to it chipping away at the entrance of its cavitiy that it has been exiled to an aqurium room down the hall.

Roy

 

[billn]

Thanks for the info. He/She is pretty cool and I've decided to devote a small tank to the little guy. Set it up yesterday with sand, algae, and rock pulled from my refugium and plumbed into my main tank. He moved right into a piece of pvc pipe I buried in the sand. I now see why you guys like these little shrimps so much. Quite a personality on the little guy and fun to watch.