Why you love them?

[tyesmithND]

Hi,

HEre is my question. The majority of people out there seem to view Mantis Shrimp as a problem or unwanted guest. Most would rather have a display or corals and / or fish as oposed to a tank with a Mantis.

I am getting ready to start a 7gallon nano and am looking into possible additions. I am just curious as to why you find them so interesting?

Also, how do they affect the bio load? ie- IS having one similar to having a small clown as far as impact to the tank or is the effect smaller or larger?

Finnaly, If I were to go with a MAntis tank it sounds from other posts as if I could keep some corals as well as long as the were anchored down. Is this true?

Thanks alot and I hope all is well.

 

[Skitaemen's Ocean]

I would have to say that I enjoy my mantis because when I look at him and he looks back at me I can tell hes thinking and he has a very intelligent look to himself. Almost as if hes trying to decide how to get rid of me.

In "his tank" he lives with a snail and a hermit. The relationship is funny because he hasn't killed them yet and its been about 3 months. I created sort of a shelf with the live rock in the tank and the hermit and snail don't leave the top of the shelf. They sort of see it as their safety zone since the mantis doesn't go up there. The mantis owns the bottom of the tank and the snail and hermit know it.

The other thing I enjoy is how the mantis drives my dog insane. She, my dog, being a beagle is very inquisitive. She was in my room one day when the mantis started making the popping noise. For 10 minutes the dog went nuts trying to figure out where the noise was coming from. She eventually caught on it was coming from the tank and started sitting on the bed looking at the tank and whining at it.

The neatest thing is when you tell people that you have one in a tank that is set up just for the mantis and they think your crazy.

Just what I like about mine:wildone:

 

[Python73]

There's just something about predators. And ounce for ounce, nothing comes close to these little shelled warriors. Put it this way, if they got the size of, say, dogs... well, you'd never go swimming again.

Bio-load wise, it isn't the mantis that's the problem. Its the feeding. If you overfeed, and don't clean up, you could have problems. Otherwise, don't sweat the water quality. People spend lots of time and effort trying to extract and kill these guys. If you can keep a fish alive, this is a no brainer.

Good luck.

S !