Anyone keep matis shrimp?

[Deubie Doo]

I've had my peacock mantis for about a year in a glass 15gallon. I have a good layer of sand and several PVC tubes. He lives and kills in the tubes. Probably why I've gotten away with the glass tank. So far anyway. I also have a damsel fish that he has never bothered. I regularly buy him snails, hermit crabs, and red crabs. I've read they can lose their clubs if they don't use them. He eats pellets in between. I have some big snails for cleaning, they last a while longer than the rest. View attachment 1027018View attachment 1027019


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some awesome pics! Dose he fill up the 15 good or do you loose in the tank? My girlfriend would like to put one in a 55 and build a reef for him. I know they get a good size but feel like he might get lost in the tank

 

[Xray_chic]

Thanks. He's about 5 inches, so he has plenty of room. A 55 would be easier in maintaining water parameters. The only drawback is that they kill just about anything else you put in there. So it would be a 55 with one shrimp. It will kill anything that moves. The only two things that have survived are a blue damsel and a feather duster. My advice, only buy stuff that you won't be upset if it becomes a meal.
He has learned that I feed him, so he will come out when I get close to the tank (like the pics). He also comes out looking for food, but spends most of the time in his pipe. When he's killing you can hear the clicking throughout the house. He has a graveyard of shattered shells outside his pipe. Pretty cool.


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[Dieselhybrid]

I've had my peacock mantis for about a year in a glass 15gallon. I have a good layer of sand and several PVC tubes. He lives and kills in the tubes. Probably why I've gotten away with the glass tank. So far anyway. I also have a damsel fish that he has never bothered. I regularly buy him snails, hermit crabs, and red crabs. I've read they can lose their clubs if they don't use them. He eats pellets in between. I have some big snails for cleaning, they last a while longer than the rest. View attachment 1027018View attachment 1027019


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This is so cool! That's it, I'm setting up one of the old spare tanks in the garage!

Question are peacocks smashers? Or clubbers, etc?


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[Xray_chic]

They are smashers/clubbers. They have a club-like appendage that they use to hit their prey at the speed of a .22 caliber bullet. The fastest punch in nature.

Another amazing thing is their eyes. Also among the most amazing in nature. They are very complex and can see 10X the colors we do including UV and polarized light.

Oh, and it's not really a shrimp. It's a stomatopod. Odontodactylus scyllarus.

I saw a special on these guys and couldn't pass it up at my lfs. It's my only reason for having a saltwater aquarium.




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[Dieselhybrid]

I had a salt tank years back. Started as a FOWLR tank and then grew to a reef tank. My tank blew out, on the third floor of an apartment building. In the middle of the New England winter, at night with nowhere to take the fish. I lost everything and got discouraged and never did salt again. But this would be perfect, small and compact. Entertaining, something new.

Thanks I think you've motivated me to try salt again