Sad state of things.

[nubreefer]

I was tipped off by one LFS that another actually carried Mantis from time to time, so I went and checked it out. There he was, all the way in back in a 6x8 inch section of connected wall tanks housing other invertibrates. No substrate, no rock, no burrow, and a case of shell disease that must have been torturing the poor creature as he would continually arch his back toward the flow inlet and scratch at his discolored carapace.

It sickens me to see a creature in these conditions. What can I do though? They're selling him for 49.99 and he's been there 6 months. I think I can convince them to basically let me have the thing but I don't want to take it without being certain, if the disease has progressed too far, that when he dies after attempting to nurse him back to health and I get a healthy one that the disease will not be residing in the tank and infect another, healthy, and more expensive mantis.

 

[dapel]

It will die. Sorry to say, but that LFS is retarded and you should probably tell the owner that this is animal abuse. Just because lots of people hate mantis shrimps because of their destructive nature doesn't mean they can treat it like crap. Where do you live?

 

[Ishkabibble5710]

poor guy i would take him home and give him a good last part of his life

 

[nubreefer]

yeah that's what i was thinking ishkabibble, but I want to be sure it won't spread when I get a new one.

dapel I live in milwaukee and yes I was pretty angry when telling the people that worked there about it. They seemed apologetic but ignorant to what to do and i don't think they want to spend the money to make him comfortable. If I can take him without risking infecting other mantis i will, but I don't want to make any healthy guys sick, you know?

 

[serjuanca88]

poor guy i would take him home and give him a good last part of his life

But then you are supporting the LFS and proving to them that they can sell animals in a poor condition. Then they will just do it again. Leave it there. If somebody buys it, oh well, there isnt anything you can do. What can you do is talk to the owner/manager and tell them a few specifics about the proper care of mantis shrimps. If they listen, good for them. If they dont just leave and dont go back. Think about how many lobsters are being tortured for the food industry (and yes its the same thing).

In other words: If they better the conditons, good. If they don't get over it, move on, find a new LFS.

 

[nubreefer]

The point is they've had him for 6 months and I'm fairly sure that I could talk them into giving him to me for free or something like 5 bux.

 

[Gonodactylus]

To my knowledge, there have been no studies identifying the pathogens involved with shell disease in O. s. When I've looked at severely infected animals, there was a virtual zoo (and garden) of things living in the infected cuticle. However, those for the most part are probably secondary infections. From work on other species of stomatopdos, the primary organism is probably a fungus.

From my experience, I think the disease is infectious, but not terribly so. Use of strong uv-water sterilization certainly reduces transmission and helps with the infection.

The keys to recovery are good water, good nutrition, a dark burrow, and uv sterilization. Non-copper medicated dips used to treat fungus in fish might help, but I have not data on this for O.s. and given how sensitive stomatopods are to many chemicals, I would probably not try it.

Roy

 

[twocoloreyes]

im new to mantis shrimp and have owned mine for a couple of months,
so im not sure what shell disease looks like, are there any web sites that have a picture of shell disease so that i can tell if there is something wrong with my mantis?

 

[Gonodactylus]

Not that I am aware of. In O.s. they start usually on the back and carapace as brown or rusty colored patches. As the infection gets worse, the cuticle erodes and black scar tissue appears. In extreme cases, a hole will actually form. Shell disease on an antennule or eye can cause them to "rot" away.

Roy

 

[twocoloreyes]

thanks, i dont see anything like what you described, thank goodness

 

[word]

i made a post almost exactly like this about the same animal at the same store a couple of months ago. really quite sad.