Mantis Shrimp

Mantis shrimp sound awsome. Im just gonna stick with the 20gal freshwater im trying to setup now, but if all goes well ill try to find one. Maybe something like a 5gal, or would that be too small?


thanks to everyone who responded, and any info you have, or experience, i would be happy to hear it
 
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A 5 wouldn't be too small for most species, but it would be a bigger challenge to keep stable. Though, the mantis should survive any swings. It's easier to work with a larger tank, though, so I'd probably shoot for a 10 instead of the five. For anything else, you'll want a bigger tank for the additional stability it offers, since many SW critters won't tolerate the spikes and swings of a small tank.
 
Yeah, definately a bigger tank.

I'm going to move my mantis to my 55gal. reef tank when it's done cycling.
 
Mantish shrimp, along with aiptasia anemones are INCREDIBLY hard to kill unless you turn the whole aquarium water into poison (which would kill everything, including the bacteria), a 5gl or a 10gl works fine for most type of mantish shrimp, and yes they are rather intelligent, they can recognize objects and if you try to trap it, if you fail once, it wont fall for that same trap again.
 
I have read quite a few threads in which people kill mantis to get them out. Since I pulled mine out a month ago, I have become rather attached. After I stared into Zorak's buggy eyes peeking out of a piece of PVC pipe, I don't think I could ever kill a mantis.

You know, after hearing all the horror stories, I was surprised at how easy they were to extract. Remove rock, enlarge burrow with hammer and chisel, shake rock over bucket. That's how I got three, and the fourth just fell out when I was rinsing the live rock when it arrived.

As a sidenote, it's another good reason not to hurry in setting up a reef tank. I would have been rather unhappy if I had perfected the aquascaping, moved the corals in, and then had to remove the rocks to get the mantis out.

The small pair I have left are settling in quite nicely in their 10 gallon mantis-ominium. It's great fun to watch them grab food from the chopsticks.
 
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