Seahorse with a mantis

[pisces77]

Anyone kept seahorses or pipefish with a smaller smasher? Before I owned a mantis, I would have never considered this but between the 3 I have owned, only one attacked anything not meant as food. Just to clarify:

G. ternatensis (ate a brittle star once, but nothing else in 2 years)
G. glaborous (never attacked fish or non-feeder inverts)
O. latirostris (attacks anything)

 

[rwhhunt]

Can we see a pic of your O. latirostris ???

 

[Gonodactylus]

I think you already know the answer I'm going to give, but here goes anyway. You are taking a big risk. Stomatopods vary by species and individuals with respect to how predatory and or territorial they are. In fact, the same individual varies depending on hunger, where it is in the molt cycle, etc. Stomatopods are predators and they ALL make a living taking live prey. Some are specialists and might never eat a particular species that you have in your tank, but they will occasionally sample noval items. Also, stomatopods are often territorial, particularly when preparing to molt. They often will attack anything that comes close to their cavity. Bottom line, you really should not keep any animal with a stomatopod of near equal size or smaller unless you are willing to lose it.

Roy

Roy

 

[pisces77]

just put one in the gallery, but don't get excited... my camera is terrible.

 

[SW Fan]

I wouldn't do it