New Peacock Arrived Tonight

Will have to get better pics this weekend. I wanted to snap a couple quick and then turn off the lights.

She isn't named yet.



'

 

Damn you are lucky! I have searched high & low for one. I just hope yall can come thru & score another for me! lol.

 

This may be a crazy question, but what exactly is this? Almost looks like a small lobster/crawdad.

 

stomapod aka mantis shrimp.

with a little research you'll be addicted too.

 

Sweet! Nice photos.

 

It looks to be a female based on the color of the exoskeleton. However, until she does her first molt, we won't know. I didn't want to stand her up with a stick to check the uropods. She's had a ROUGH 24 hours. LOL (Chased with a net, shoved in a bag, put into a dark box, shook around on a plane, stared at while in a bag by a bunch of fish geeks, shook around in a car, then thrown into a brand new tank where it's unknown if there are any enemies around, etc).

She seems to be doing well. Ate her first snail within about 5 minutes of being in the tank.

 

The Lurker's Guide to Stomatopods - Mantis Shrimp

While you are studying them, they are studying you right back. They have the most complex visual system of any animal in the world.....can also see infra-red, ultra-violet, and polarized light. When they strike their prey (snails, crabs, mollusks), they have the acceleration of a .22 caliber bullet. Certain species of them (and this is one) can break aquarium glass so don't irritate them by tapping on the glass.

One of my favorite animals. I was keeping mantis when everyone blamed every unexplained death on them. (You didn't acclimate your fish and it disappeared....you must have a mantis. You put incompatible fish together in the same tank and one disappears.....you must have a mantis. You put a fish into a tank that has 120 ppm Nitrates, where your old fish slowly got used to the high nitrates as they rose over time. New fish dies....you must have a mantis, yada, yada, yada).

 

Seems kind of risky to keep them in your tank, lol. I'm sure they can be a very fun addition though.

 

What would be a good small system to keep them in? one of those acrylic all in one biocube?

 

It's in a 29g glass Biocube. It will have to double in size before it will be able to break the glass but I've never had problems with that anyway. If you don't irritate them, they have no motivation to strike the glass. Glass heaters with a light indicating when the thermostat on are a VERY BAD IDEA. Many mantis have died from electrocution because the light flips on and startles them into attacking. Use titanium heaters if it must be in the tank.