matis shrimp

[killerfish]

thinking of starting up a 20 long and was wonduring if thare was any mantis shrimp that could live in there that is a smasher also can you put other fish in there

[rottbo]

no other fish all will be eaten and unless your 20 is acrylic I wouldnt recomend it stomatopods can and will break the glass.. most of the time the glass is broken when burrowing... when mantis burrow if they run into an object in their way they tend to try and smash through it to continue their burrow

[rottbo]

with that said they are many mantis that stay under 5" so really its all about what you can find since most people consider them pests

[Mattcomptonassvanhorn]

99.999 percent of the time they will bust out the bottom of a tank. They can not be kept with other fish and they are worthless. If you are paying more than a dollar for a mantis shrimp then you are paying to much.

[chrisdef15]

I agree anyone paying much for them is getting ripped off but i still think you should stop sprouting all this stuff about breaking tanks if you have no proof. I know there are a few recorded and proven cases of it happening but you saying 99.9% is abit over the top. A small smasher is not the demon your making it out to be. My guy still takes a few whacks to get into small crabs with shells no where near as strong as decent glass.
I agree with rotbo though that you cant have other fish. I had a few small fish with mine and i lost a few to my smasher till i decided to give up and give it its own tank.
Some of them where in there for a year or so though so you could try it if you wanted.

[rottbo]

How many have you had???? I have been researching them for years and have had one but I know of someone whos tank has been broken... I also know someone whos finger has been broken.... with that said it has been studied that even the smallest species of mantis has enough power to break glass.. first and foremost quit contradicting everything I say. How long hav you been keeping mantis? How many have you owned??? have you ever done research on them or are you just going on what you know from owning one??I am not saying its impossible to keep one in a glass tank I ammjust saying dont be supprised when your glass is broken.. and second I have been giving sound advice on this forum for along time you can ask any of the long time members here how long have you been around??? so quit trying top run your lip and start stuff... its people like you who give this forum a bad name... if ya dont like my advice go to another forum and spout off your crap there just leave this one alone.. and you are the only person that does not agree with me including all the zoologists on this board....... man you really are starting to annoy the heck outa me contradicting everything I say...

[rottbo]

its all in the eye of the beholder

[Mad About Cichlids]

:drool: :drool: :drool:

Pest to some pets to others. We all have our own taste/opinions.


http://www.numa.com.au/gallery/photos/mantis%20shrimp.jpg

[Fish Finder]

Here is mine. If u want a trick to keep them from buring and then trying to smash out the bottom of your tank get a big peace of L pvc and a lot of little rock's. Here check out my pic One of the happest mantes shrimp in the world lol. And incase anyone's wondering this is my 6th mantis. Only ever lost one (due to he was old and had fungus on him when i got him) and traded the outhers for outher mantis.

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y253/jpp118187/IMG_0653.jpg

[Mattcomptonassvanhorn]

OKAy!

[water_baby83]

How many have you had???? I have been researching them for years and have had one but I know of someone whos tank has been broken... I also know someone whos finger has been broken.... with that said it has been studied that even the smallest species of mantis has enough power to break glass.. first and foremost quit contradicting everything I say. How long hav you been keeping mantis? How many have you owned??? have you ever done research on them or are you just going on what you know from owning one??I am not saying its impossible to keep one in a glass tank I ammjust saying dont be supprised when your glass is broken.. and second I have been giving sound advice on this forum for along time you can ask any of the long time members here how long have you been around??? so quit trying top run your lip and start stuff... its people like you who give this forum a bad name... if ya dont like my advice go to another forum and spout off your crap there just leave this one alone.. and you are the only person that does not agree with me including all the zoologists on this board....... man you really are starting to annoy the heck outa me contradicting everything I say...

wow, grr. LOL

[water_baby83]

psst. .... Matt.., I think he was actually talking to rottbo. Maybe not, but that is what it looked like.

[rottbo]

WOW NICE SPECIMEN.... but OK now I am a little confused now who is all fighting with who here??? I guess I was not trying to start a large arguement

[rottbo]

Here is mine. If u want a trick to keep them from buring and then trying to smash out the bottom of your tank get a big peace of L pvc and a lot of little rock's. Here check out my pic One of the happest mantes shrimp in the world lol. And incase anyone's wondering this is my 6th mantis. Only ever lost one (due to he was old and had fungus on him when i got him) and traded the outhers for outher mantis.

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y253/jpp118187/IMG_0653.jpg

can you show some full body shots of him he is freakin awesome

[killerfish]

i saw one at my lfs and thought thay looked really cool but if thay cant be kept with other fish i might not get him he looked like the one mad about cichlids posted and was like 15$ the tank is acrylic but im not sure i whant to spend a bunch of mony on live rock and stuff for just the shrimp but thay still are really cool

[andromedia226]

"..man you really are starting to annoy the heck outa me contradicting everything I say.."

Isn't the point of a forum to provide varying opinions? SO maybe since we're contradicting everything you say, then everything you say might just be ....wrong?

I've owned five mantis shrimps, and know Roy Caldwell, the Berkeley Dr who has ~300 in GLASS tanks in his California lab.

So maybe before you start spouting all of this regurgitated, super anecdotal "i know someone who knows someone who...", you can maybe just sit back and realize you have almost no knowledge of these animals, and thus, have very little new, fresh information to offer us.

I'm not saying I know much about these creatures, I'm directly challenging you to provide us with a reason (other than your high post count) to take your advice to heart.

I genuinely hope you can provide some reasons.

[rottbo]

I have owned them and only say things that are true What have I said that has not been true? Before you come on this website and expect to be listened to seriously you need to consider how you aproach the conversation.. I never said I know some one that knows some one I am the biggest hater of hear say info, I know a few marine biologist and a few zoologist that would back my statements up.

[killerfish]

forgot to ask what about puting in another mantis shrimp like a pair or would thay kill each other

[rottbo]

I have never tried it but I would think that it wouldnt work my mantis killed everything in his tank including the smallest snails

[Fish Finder]

Rottbo: Il see if i can get some full body shot's of him this weekend.

[rottbo]

Cool I cant wait

[BIGgourami]

does anybody know if they're safe with corals?

[BIGgourami]

i'm NOT planning on getting one ANY TIME soon, but maybe would like one in the future.

[ewurm]

Why is there so much hostility in the mantis shrimp threads? If you own one, be sure to set up a camera that operates continuously. That way you can post the vid of it crushing your fish, your hand, or your tank wall. That would be A-1 material! LOL

[rottbo]

The reason I never tried coral was because my mantis always moved the rocks around so I never had a god perch that wouldnt end up in the sand.... as far as if the mantis will attack the coral I have never heard of them doing so so if you have a stable enough rock formation were you can perch coral with out worry of it being toppled over then I would say go for it.. just remember in my experience with mantis they like to rearange their tank constantly

[chrisdef15]

I guess you said similar things but i actually disagreed with the guy who posted above me who said 99.999% of them will smash your tank and i agreed with you. Ille admit they can break glass but really how often does it happen. Ide say more like 5% if they are kept in anything with a decent thinkness glass for the size of the mantis they have. I see your a member of reefcentral too so should know there are probably a 100 or more people on there who own mantis shrimps and plz tell me how many of them have had there tank busted??? Not to many from what ive seen.

Now onto your questions. I have had 3 biggest one about 4 inches and kept in a 3' glass 140l tank (im aussie so we dont use gallon sizes). 1 in a 2' about 50l glass tank and one was kept in an acrylic tank not for safety it was just a small empty tank i had. I also work at a LFS so hear things from customers and have caught quite a few from live rock deliveries. I havent done experiments or recorded things if thats what you mean by research no, just watched them at home, at work, and heard other people experiences.

Now some questions for you. How big where these mantis that busted someone you knows tank and finger???? Im betting not a small species of about 2-3 inches like ive recommended people get.
How many have you owned??
What research have you done and what are you scientific findings on mantis shrimps

[Sunpoe]

Intense thread:grinyes:

I had no idea that shrimp could crack glass, very cool indeed. To bad I have never seen them in my area. Nice pics.

[freeNINETY9]

i dont understand why matt is getting so much stuff sent his way. the exact object of this thread is to give some opinions and frankly, from what ive read i would agree with him on a lot. i also wouldnt keep them in a glass tank or with other fish and i also wouldnt stick my hand in there to clean it either. matt gives a great example of worst case scenario which no one ever considers because we all think 'that wont happen to me' when in reality it can. so you guys can keep your shrimp in glass tanks and never have them bust or anything, thats fine but i would agree with matt and keep mine in an acrylic tank from the start and always plan for the worse. better safe than sorry. and your 'i know a zoologist' is no better than matts 'i know a guy'. maybe your zoo buddy has always been lucky who know. but i think both points have been taken into consideration. let it be.

[rottbo]

I am out of this thread and topic I will PM the original poster and give him some info but I will no longer answer any questions in these hostile threads

[rottbo]

no I can send you a few links if you like but I own several book pertaining to SW critters that specifically talk about the stomatopod... I will try and put little bibliography together for you if you would like but I am getting ready for a large pick up of fish tommorow.. I have 12 hours of driving then I have to acclimate about 15 different fish and two turtles when I get home so my response might take a day or two...

[chrisdef15]

Lucky you. Im sure its worth the effort.
Yeah send me whatever you got on them including links to ther sites (other then reefcentral). I dont mean to be as combative as i am i just write it how i think it and it alwasy comes out like that.

[rottbo]

actually thats not how pirahna and snakeheads got their bad rep its because dumb owners release them into their local waters and they survive with this said I will no longer repsond to anything you siad I did not call you a bad cookie maybe you should read before you jump to saying crap been nice talking to you but it will never happen again have a nice life you are now on my ignore list

[TicaL]

Don't you guys think that the fact there's more than one marine biologist in the world let you know that the reason there is more than one is so more than one opinion and conclusion can be drawn from observations and experiments???

Mantis Shrimp have been kept successfully thousands of times I'm sure without breaking the tank but I'm also sure there have been times when a Mantis Shrimp was very strong and cracked some tanks. The point being is none of us on here know all the circumstances and conditions of each of these instances whether it's the successful trials or the failures, so why can't we all just share what WE have learned so our community here on the forum can draw their own conclusions because that's what the rest of life is about anyways so why should the pursuit of fish keeping knowledge be any different.

Mantis Shrimp are frickin cool but I'd be more weary of having to ever stick my hand in there than it busting the side of my tank. With that being said, let's all just get along and pass the bleezy to the left cause the rotation gets messed up with all the arguing.

[MistirE]

How long do they live? I seen some gnarly clips....Really one actually broke a finger....wow!:popcorn:

[TicaL]

Soon we will be hearing you need bulletproof glass.


ayy dogg life as a fish is a struggle and a good day is a day you survived :ROFL:

[WyldFya]

Your disagreeing is not what labeled you a bad cookie, it is rather your approach towards disagreement.

I agree that 99.999% is not true. I'd say that of the many species of mantis shrimp only 2-5% actually are tank busters, however these are the majority of those seen in the hobby. We had one at my work in our LR tank and it busted the side. I personally did not see this happen, but a customer that was looking for LR had his hand in the tank when it happened. This tank was a 100G thick glass tank. We have also had them in the store (fancier types) that were fine, however they were in acrylic tanks.

[chrisdef15]

Your disagreeing is not what labeled you a bad cookie, it is rather your approach towards disagreement.

I agree that 99.999% is not true. I'd say that of the many species of mantis shrimp only 2-5% actually are tank busters, however these are the majority of those seen in the hobby. We had one at my work in our LR tank and it busted the side. I personally did not see this happen, but a customer that was looking for LR had his hand in the tank when it happened. This tank was a 100G thick glass tank. We have also had them in the store (fancier types) that were fine, however they were in acrylic tanks.

You cant say that either. Where are your figures showing the main species encountered in the hobby are the tank busting kind? I live in Australia, other side of the world we have completely different species to you. I have never seen or heard of a mantis bigger then about 4 inches anywhere around here in live rock deliveries. I think it more comes down to where your lfs gets the live rock from.
How big was the mantis that busted the glass??

[WyldFya]

Remember this, what you have there is not what is available in the rest of the world. I have worked in various LFS for many years, and can tell you that mantis shrimp can come in in a wide variety of ways. We have had lotus mantis shrimps which are much smaller and better looking than those found in LR. The one in the LR was around 12" and the lotus was 6".

[HarleyK]

Are you guys :screwy: ?

How can so much hostility arise from a simple question on shrimp? Great way to make a good impression on a new member who seeks information!

I cleaned this thread out. Don't make me come back :mr-t: . MFK supports constructive discussions. Cursing and name-calling are not tolerated.


killerfish,

Welcome. Don't let it spoil your fun at MFK :)!

HarleyK

[BIGgourami]

here, here! just take precaution killerfish, it's betterto be PROactive than REactive. and remember that it doesn't matter what species it is, it's the individual animal that's truly important.

peace,
Fish Guru Jon

hah that's supposed to be a joke! just trying to lighten the mood.

[rottbo]

Are you guys :screwy: ?

How can so much hostility arise from a simple question on shrimp? Great way to make a good impression on a new member who seeks information!

I cleaned this thread out. Don't make me come back :mr-t: . MFK supports constructive discussions. Cursing and name-calling are not tolerated.


killerfish,

Welcome. Don't let it spoil your fun at MFK :)!

HarleyK

thanks K I quit checking this thread awhile ago because of the utter hostility I was trying to give advice and be a supportive member but only got slammed eveytime I typed

[guppy]

Okay people, I didn't have time to read all the threads over the last couple days so missed this one.
Here is the deal. I do not keep mants shrimp but am aware that some smashers, not all can, and occasionally do break tanks, I have not seen any % statistics that are supported by research.
That is not really the point here.
The true point is that after reviewing all the posts, including the deleted ones I see problems of both miscommunication and attitude.
First please carefully review what was said to who, a large part of the problem is that little misunderstanding.
Second, CHILL OUT! We have different opinions and they can be questioned, or even contradicted, NO BIG DEAL. DO NOT start name calling. Be polite or be shut down.