Little Creature - does he need food?

[Nikki]

I just had a sighting of this little creature in my new tank. I have only 2 pieces of live rock (which is where he must have come from) and have not been providing any food. Does anyone know a)What he is? and b) whether I should be feeding him or not? He looks kind of like a little lobster.

Regards,
Nikki

[Samper]

That is a Mantis SHRIMP!!!!!!!!!!!

[Ninong]

That's what's known as a hitchhiker. Some hitchhikers are good and some are bad. This one is horrible!

Do not attempt to touch it with your hands. Remove it with tongs or trap it with a jar, whatever. Just get it out of your tank now. What you do with it after that is up to you. Perhaps someone will want it.

The bottom line is that you do NOT want that thing in your reef tank. Period!

[Ninong]

Suggested reading: Mantis Shrimps

[Nikki]

Thank you for the ID, I almost didn't post and now I am wicked glad I did! I have just redone the sand so I can't see him through the murk, but I will get him out asap.

Thanks,
Nikki

[zhenya]

Nikki,

Please don't kill it. If you have a 10-15g tank you may want to set it up as a species tank, these critters make very interesting pets.

Or maybe try offering it to your LFS for trade for something.

[Nikki]

I will do my best to preserve it's life Gene :-) However, another question I have is I read on wikipedia that it can actually break aquarium glass with it's 'weapon' or foreleg, does anyone have first hand knowledge of this? Should I be concerned about this if I try to keep it? I am quite amazed with the little guy as he is a VERY interesting creature with incredible eyesight and ferocity.

Regards,
Nikki

[zhenya]

Yes it can do that, Nikki, but chances of this happening are slim to none from what I read. It has to be really large specimen and has to be a clubber type that is really mad at the glass or sees food on it.
These are extremely intelligent creatures, as crustaceans go, with exercised caution you can enjoy watching this animals watching you, when you enter the room. ;)
I was amazed when I observed couple of this critters in my LFS...observing me actually.

[Ninong]

I will do my best to preserve it's life Gene :-) However, another question I have is I read on wikipedia that it can actually break aquarium glass with it's 'weapon' or foreleg, does anyone have first hand knowledge of this? Should I be concerned about this if I try to keep it? I am quite amazed with the little guy as he is a VERY interesting creature with incredible eyesight and ferocity.

Regards,
Nikki

Yes, the larger ones have been known to break aquarium glass but yours is too small right now to be able to do that.

[scubadude]

Awww isnt he cute... Nikki do a search on traps on the forum...theres one using a small plastic soda bottle you cut the top lid and invert it and put some food in it and u can usually catch the mantis this way if you think it out real good first and kind of starve the booger first! They are smart and can slice your hand open.

[rjs5134]

I just took the rock the mantis shrimp was in and place it into fresh RO/DI water. The shrimp immediately came out and I put him into a seperate container. The rock immediately went back into the DT. Some warned me that I would have some die off on the rock, but I didn't notice any deleterious effects.

[Kaptain-LokI]

awwww he is a cute little mantis shrimp, I have wanted one of those for a while but my wife wont let me set up anymore tanks in the apartment we are in I agree with Zhenya, put him in his own little tank. Some of the mantis shrimps grow up to be very beautiful. They are also, from what I hear, second only to octopus in invertibrate intelligence. They, from what I hear, can also see colours we can only imagine, because they've got many more colour receptors than humans. They have 4 receptors in the ultraviolet range alone! We can't even see ultraviolet and they can see color in that spectrum more richly than we can see our own visible spectrum! Sorry, I'm getting a little excited here, but they are some amazing animals.

Check this page out:
The Lurker's Guide to Stomatopods - Mantis Shrimp

[Nikki]

Yes they appear to be very cool and he is cute! I am on my way out to get a setup for him now. Thanks for the tip on the traps, I will certainly need that! The freshwater approach sounds pretty effective. I have not seen him since I posted so he might be hard to ferret out :-) I think he is probably alreayd starving as I assume the LFS didn't know he was there either and he was in rock only holding tank.

[Nikki]

Small followup question:

I have purchased everything I need to house the little guy, whose has now been named Vinnie of the Sea. We used to have a vinagaroon that is a scorpion cousin that we found in our backyard when we lived in NM and he we also ferocious and mean so it is very apropos :-)

The only thing I didn't buy is a stand (I went large for a 20 gallon as I think he will be happier the more room he has to roam around in). So now I am ready to go, but can't find a place to put it. Would a kitchen countertop be able to support the 200+ weight? Of course we are replacing these within the next month which is just bad timing. Or do I have to go out and buy a stand and figure out the right place for it so the three little ones can't topple it?

[Ninong]

Yes, I believe a 20-gal aquarium will be fine on a kitchen countertop.

[Yankee I Am]

YES ON THE COUNTER TOP/...sry caps..I have a 12 gallon nano with a peacock mantis..very cool stuff

[Nikki]

Russ,

Out of curiosity why is your handle Yankee I am when you are in GA, are you a transplant? I am originally from TN but transplanted to Yankee country for a while in MA.

And, as luck would have it I just realized the darn tank won't fit under the cabinets with the hood on ....

[art_of_war]

That thing is COOL! I don't actually have one...anymore. Not since I found one a while back in one of my big tanks where I ended up netting and smashing into a pile of yucky goo on my kitchen floor. Just kidding. I saw one of my LFS's have one and it was...pretty interesting watching his typical behavior.

Unfortunately, no one would buy it b/c it was somewhat expensive to feed; hard to catch sometimes and dangerous to keep. Nevertheless, pretty interesting creatures.

[returnofsid]

To begin with, just about anything that comes in as a hitch hiker won't need any purposeful feeding. I only start with that because it answers the original question you asked.

Now on to more important info...as has been mentioned this is a Mantis Shrimp. I've VERY unlikely it would ever break your glass. However, you DON'T want it in your tank and you REALLY DON'T want to try catching it with your hands. They're nicknamed "Thumbsplitter" for a reason. Next thing, I'd recommend NOT doing research on Wikipedia for any subject...lol. Keep in mind that I can go to Wikipedia, look up George Washington and edit the information that's there with any information I want and it'll be the new information...lol. This forum, as well as a few others, are a great source of information for just about any reef questions or research you'd ever need to do.

Next, if you have a refugium, I'd recommend putting it in there and keeping it. Mantis are actually very interesting animals. One bit of trivia, they are considered one of, if not THE fastest animal in the world. This relates to the speed they can strike at prey with though. It's amazing. Check out some of the online videos. If you do keep it in the refugium, DON'T ever forget it's in there when your hands are in there!!

There's lots of people who have set up tanks specifically for Mantis Shrimp. I hope to do this myself soon.

[Ninong]

Next thing, I'd recommend NOT doing research on Wikipedia for any subject...lol. Keep in mind that I can go to Wikipedia, look up George Washington and edit the information that's there with any information I want and it'll be the new information...lol.

Wikipedia is a great resource. They do a great job of policing vandalism. Most of their scientific articles are up-to-date and accurate. It's their biographies of public figures that are frequently vandalized and/or slanted.

People who don't know enough to recognize bad information are probably better off staying away from Wikipedia or simply using it for the links to references.