I hate mantis shrimp...I want them dead dead dead. 8-)

What animals will you be stocking the tank with?

I think the little Octopus that was in my Tampa Bay Saltwater LR must be taking care of them!! Maybe I can rent him out???

Yep, octopus are amongst the best mantis exterminators, but there are many fish that will make a snack of one. Once you know what type you have, you can determine if it poses a threat to your other animals--for example, spearers are more a threat to fish than to other inverts, while clubbers usually leave fish completely alone but go through crustaceans like popcorn. Of course, there are other fish that will make the mantis a snack--triggers being one of the most efficient hunters.

It's a shame you can't get to them and eat them yourself. I eat them all the time. Quite tasty little jokers. Then again, I catch mine in the cast net while shrimping for white and brown shrimp on the east coast. We have a specie here that can get to nearly a foot (my biggest catch was 8 inches). The big ones make neat pets in a specie tank. Otherwise, add a little Old Bay seasoning, boil for 3 minutes, peel, and eat....


QUOTE: ***Unreal that one of those *******s survived even that.*****

You could probably soak the little jerks in formaldehyde and not kill them. I caught one this one time in my net (a big one) and decided to keep him just for the heck of it. When I got him home, I realized I didn't have any salt mix, so he sat in this bucket with 2 inches of water, and, of course, I forgot about him. He ate most of the one striped killifish (an attractive native) that was in there with him, but the head rotted and fouled the water. Three weeks later the mantis was still in there in that puke-looking water. I froze him and fed his tail meat to my damselfish.

I hope you saved the captured ones, there is ALWAYS a demand for mantises on RC, and people are even willing to pay a modest fee.

Mantis Shrimp can survive 3 days out of water, so yes they are very hard to kill.