mantis shrimp care and ?'s

yeah i can't wait, so you had 2 and they mated? im confused. well i dont care what color it'll be a nice experience. you have any other helpful tips and hints? thanks so much.

 

no actually a mantis can breed years before and somehow not lay the eggs until sometime later. 2 mantis in a tank would kill each other. Plus they are cannabals and would eat their young once they hatched

 

Only until a molt occurs. If the stomatopod has molted since the last time it was near a male the eggs could not be fertilized.



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that seems like it makes sense however I had bob for 2 years and she molted many times during that time. I am not saying the eggs were fertile but she laid a brood of eggs

 

I have to agree for the most part with that statement. But it is possible to house stomatopods together. Two mantis in a tank will work if you have a big enough tank. A LFS I go to has kept two stomatopods together (I believe N. wennerae) for at least 1 year in a 125g. I have no idea how long she had them before I became a customer there, but the owner speaks as if they have been there for quite awhile. She even says they have baby mantis shrimps from time to time. They do not survive (skimmed out and fish food) however.

 

so its probably unlikely? if it is a girl that lays eggs, should i let her eat them or take them out? i figure that they are near immposible to raise and few if any have, as with most inverts.

i was never planning on adding another one, simply because i dont think my tank could handle the bioload. well i'll be getting the PVC this weekend and placing the order at the LFS so it'll be anywhere from a week to 3 weeks till i get the mantis.

 

I would leave them in if that unlikely event does happen. Hatchling mantis shrimps are TINY and when they die off they should not affect your water quality too drastically. But if you want to be on the safe side, you can just always siphon them out.

I have been trying to find a site that has a picture of a newly hatched mantis shrimp, if I can find it, I will post it later.

 

oh im not worried about water quality : i just was wondering if it works like it does for fish, where the eggs area high protein meal.

 

Here are pictures of Bob after she laid her brood........



If I had to do it over again, I think I would have removed the eggs.....because it was very stressful for her to keep them. She did not eat the entire time and continually had to oxygenate them. Once she laid them and I realized what she did, I turned off all the lights and covered her tank to keep her calm. After about 8 days, she finally ate them. On the next day she went into a molt and died!

Her molts were harder on her each time she went into them, so I am not sure that caring for the eggs killed her, however it was very hard on her

 

oh im sorry, (if i ever need to) how would i remove the eggs? beautiful mantis btw, i sorry for asking, but did you do another mantis after Bob?