I cant believe it. we caught a baby mantis before it reaked any havoc!!

We were sitting around, and Jeremy noticed a pair of eyeballs in our QT. I grabbed the flashlight and it retreated into a hole. He grabbed a bucket, and took out the rock. We chiselled the rock apart, but here he is.





If anyone can fill me in on what type he is, I would be grateful.

 

so lucky.. Props for effort i wouild have prolly just shrugged it off

 

I can't tell from that picture. I would need a top-down picture of it's telson (tail) and a front view looking at it's meral spots. This is PURELY A GUESS BASED ON COLOR but possibly a Gonodactylellus viridis

LOL

People here in the states think that these guys will break their tanks, break their hands, eat all of their fish, etc.

I've kept mantis in my reef tanks and I've kept fish in my nano species tanks with mantis. Schackmel is a member here and keeps a fish with her 7 inch O.s. and if she enters the room too fast, the fish darts into the den for protection from the mantis and he's always like...."Get out of here". There is a LOT of bad information on these forums about mantis shrimp. I used to always correct it but now my attitude is "Think what you want". LOL

 

Here are some to[ down pics


It is strange that each person has a different story to tell about them. I have had experiece with a mantis before, so I would be one of the crazy people telling "fish stories" about wild mantis shrimp. LOL. I had one in a 55g once before. It would prey on the fish. You would hear a huge thumping crack in the tank at night. The next morning one of the fish would be dead. Their soft underbelly would be cut open, and eaten, and the rest of the fish would be intact. I finally got it out, and all went back to normal. I guess it's kind of like coral, some people will tell you that a species is so hard and terribly un-hardy, and then you buy a small frag, and it's like a weed in your tank. What do you think? could it vary on the species possibly? I am completely open minded on this.:-/

 

Like you just stated, maybe you had a very aggressive one. I've had many mantis over the years and that is not normal behavior at all. If you had a smasher that was starving so bad that it went after a fish, you would never find a carcass as a general rule. They would drag it into their den.

Another odd thing is that fish don't make cracking sounds. Snail shells, yes....rocks, yes....but fish shouldn't make a sound when whacked. Did you possibly have an aggressive clownfish. Their popping sounds can be quite loud.

 

VERY possible. Yes I had a pair of killing oscilaris clowns. They were crazy. They would drag any new fish backwards until it drowned. We called the Bonny & Clyde.

 

You're going to think I'm a nut.....but I bet your clowns killed the fish and the mantis was nabbing a free meal.

I had a part-timer teen and this was his first job. He wanted so much to do everything right and always wanted re-assurance. After a couple weeks or two I allowed him to help with the fish I brought up from the QT warehouse and he was quite proud of his new status. I looked up and he was about to put a mandarin into a tank with some gold band maroon clowns. NO!!!! NOT THAT TANK!!!! Click, click, click....they shredded that poor thing in less than 5 seconds. I can still picture the look on his face...I think he was darn-near ready to cry.

 

LOL! Poor guy. I have never seen anything like those two fish. everyone always told us they were the most peaceful of the clowns. They had a total hunt pattern. The male would get in front of the fish and twitch. The female would come from behind, grab the new fish's tail and start dragging it backward. If the new fish turned on the famale, the male would rip off its side fins. I knew they were brutal, but for some crazy reason (plus all the nasty rumors) I figured it must have been the mantis shrimp. Poor guy, bad rap. I have this little guy in a tupperware floating in my QT. What should I do?

 

advertise it in your local reef club.

Someone wants it.

 

Fabulous. Will do. Thanks for everything.