mantis shrimp

Just bought a tiny mantis, looks very much like a peacock, lfs wasn't sure what he was, called him a green mantis. Set up a 20G long for him w/ a huge chunk of live rock. He's only about 3/4 of an inch, any advice, input would be great

Pics? :P btw i heard they can break glass so becareful what type of tank u have?

Awesome! If you can get a picture of him, I can most likely give you the exact species depending on the picture. Knowing the species will help you know how to set up their aquariums.

A 20g tank is good for a mantis that size, but when they get bigger around 3-4inches it is recommended to put them in a 30+

What is it you'd like to know?
A few tips to setting their tanks up are:
1. A lot of people put down a sheet of acrylic on the bottom of the tank before they put the sand on, so the mantis wont bury down and break the glass. But they have to be pretty big to do that. My 4 inch peacock isn't really strong enough to break glass yet. When they are full size is when you need to worry about them, but that won't be for a loooooong time.

2. PVC are a mantis shrimps best friend! Out of all the mantis shrimps I've ever had, 3/4 of them have always chose a PVC pipe as their home. Get some of the curvy ones any place them through rock work, or get a long branching one and smush it into the sand so its in place. Roy Caldwell(Pretty much mantis shrimp expert of the world lol) recommends that their pipe be 3x their length, and 1.5x their width.

3. Feeding-I feed my mantis shrimps a nice sized piece of krill on one of those wooden sticks with the point on the end, can get a pack of like 200 at wal-mart for a dollar.

4. Keep the tank stocked with hermits and snails based on the mantis' size. So for a mantis 1" long, I'd keep some really small hermits and snails for him to hunt. Keeps them on the move and makes sure they don't lose that predator instinct!

5. Molting-The most important part. A sign that your mantis is about to molt, is when they will start closing off the entrances to their homes, or won't come out at all, or to eat. When this happens, you don't want to disturb them at ALL. Leave them alone, and let them do what they do. One bad molt can result in a lost limb or death. The only think they can't grow back is their eyes. I had a mantis lose one of his dactyls(hammers) and after the first molt he had it 50% back. After the second it was around 75%, then after the third he was using it and it was about 90% the size of the other. 4th molt and he was back to normal.

Again, knowing the species is also very important.
Glad you got one of these guys, hope you have him in your room so you hear the clicking all night!:rofl:

Funny, the clicking was how I found him in the store, was about to check out and heard the clicking from all the way across shop. I will try getting a picture tonight, he is very small so might be hard. Do I need any sort of light or will he be fine without? I have a power head moving the water surface and heater of course, will add some pvc caves tonight. Can't wait to get out of work!!!

A regular stock light is fine. Some can be kept in tanks under lights strong enough for corals.

Tried getting a picture, he's just too small and the water is still a little cloudy, I'll keep trying, he is definitely green though. He;s only about the size of a ghost shrimp, hiding inside the live rock chunk. He took a thawed piece of clam today. Should I pick up some small hermit crabs or is he not big enough yet? What about small freshwater fish? Was gonna try some small green chromes but I think he could be eaten so small.

Mine never bothered the fish I had in there, but it usually depends on the mantis you have. I'd just put a few very small snails in there, like the smallest you can get, he might hunt them. When he gets around 2 inches you can get some that are a little bigger like the little blue legs. But you're probably going to need to feed him yourself once a day. Always feed him once a day even if he hunts the hermits and such, It's not a lot of meat. I lost a mantis one time because I fed him every other day, and he just got too hungry. You learn from experience I guess.

But yea, you'll have to probably give him the food for a while until he gets a little bit bigger and starts walking around the tank in the open.

If he is all green, he might just be one of those regular cheap ones a lot of stores sell, like this. But again, it's still going to be hard to tell when he's small

Here's a few that he might be, just by the green color

http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/arthro...acostraca/royslist/species.php?name=g_viridis

http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/arthro...ostraca/royslist/species.php?name=g_graphurus

http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/arthro...costraca/royslist/species.php?name=g_falcatus

As for freshwater fish, if you mean feed him them, he would probably eat a small one if it was dead but he wont hunt them. There's 2 types of mantis shrimps, smashers and spearers. Spearers hunt more live fish/shrimp and smashers will stick to crustaceans and echinoderms. You have a smasher most likely, spearers aren't commonly sold and don't come around too often, and usually make a burrow under the sand. If you put a fish in there that is aggressive and a lot bigger than the mantis it probably wouldn't turn out so well.

Let me know how it goes! These guys are lots of fun

He's deff a smasher, he's starting to come out a little more now. So wont add fish, will try for some small snails and hermits tomorrow. I have chopped frozen clam and freeze dried krill, what else might he take? He was only 15 bucks, but guy had no idea what he was, my guess is your right, just a cheap guy. Hope he turns out cool.

Hope u have fun with the shrimpy shrimp :P u should take a pic aleast x.x

Yea it wont take long until he develops that "Im the badass of this tank" feeling. Krill and clam are good foods, and just a well stocked tank of small snails/hermits that are the appropriate size. Once he gets about 3 inches you can feed him other live things such as an emerald crab once a month. Mine also LOVES nassarius snails, the large ones. Lots of meat

Question, you said a 30G would be good, I have a 29G, same dimensions as the 20 but taller, he wants more square footage of sand bed right, what are the dimensions of the 30 you talked about? Still cant get a pic, actually, I didn't see him yesterday and didn't come out for food, hope he's ok.

Could be molting. I have a 30long not sure on dimensions

Didn't like freeze dried krill, chowed down on more clam, got a few tiny hermit crabs, gonna try getting some small snails tomorrow. Wanna buy him a light this weekend, guess I wont go crazy, when he's bigger what ever I get will have to do, thanks again

Sounds good! I have this thread subscribed incase you get a good picture of him when he's bigger, or if you have more questions. Strong lighting wouldn't have an effect on him if he's sensitive to it, it mainly goes for mantis' that are 4"+. Good shaded areas and tunnels will help him hide from the light during the day if he doesn't like it a lot

Here's my mantis' tank.

He lives in the middle tube on the sand, but loves hanging out in the one to the right that goes behind the rocks. He goes in the top one sometimes, but it's only been there about 1 1/2 months. Usually just climbs in there to look down on his kingdom haha. And the far right is his newest "kill zone" where there are shells lined up against the walls of the rocks, and remains of hermits buried under the sand.




The tube is there because I'm drip acclimating 2 baby clowns that will live there, since there's no fish. I have plenty of live rock rubblle on the ground if he wants to cover up his burrows. And I only have that 1 small powerhead on the far right, then there's a good bit of flow coming from that HOB filter. Got an old marineland LED fixture on top to keep some softies in there as well.