Mantis shrimp

[always learning]

I've heard of these on several accounts and have heard that their nasty little things.


Could someone please tell me some more about them and how to prevent them? Nothing worse then spending over $100 on fish and losing over half in one night (as I've heard they can do).

[DeltaUguy]

Usually they hitchhike in on uncured live rock. They take small fish and inverts (crabs and snails) first. They can grow quite large. Many people keep them in a seperate tank by themselves as they make cool specimens in a species only tank.

To prevent them, just quarrantine any uncured live rock you might get and watch for them to come out of the rock. If they run back into the hole, just squirt some fresh water into their hole and they should come out.

[Triggerman]

I have caught three out of my g.v. rock and trust me a little squirt of freshwater will not remove them.
I isolated the rock in a bucket of distilled water for minutes until,or if, they drop out.The last one I had to pull out with a pair of tweezers.
Very fascinating animals to say the least.
I lost numerous snails and crabs and who knows what else to them.I think I only have one left.He's probably gonna be the most stubborn.
I tried putting them in my predator tank isolated and two of them managed to escape.
Very smart ,creative animals.

[kreblak]

One hitchhiked in on some of my LR. Fortunately for me, the LR was placed in a friend's tank before placing it in my tank due to scheduling conflicts. It was kept in a 400 gallon tank that housed numerous triggers. My friend lost one snail and one emerald crab before an adult niger trigger nailed the mantis. My friend didn't even know the mantis was in the tank until he saw his trigger go crazy on something, which turned out to be a mantis shrimp!

[Triggerman]

I got a ton of mantis's with my gulfview rock.The last one I caught went to my eel.He swallowed him head first.The one before that went to my red ear slider turtle.\
Two nights ago I saw two more large ones.
Gotta go hunting again.
I caught three already.Having a hard time keeping snails,crabs, etc alive.Also lost two very small gobies.
These guys are a pain in the a..