Reefs.org Forums

[gargoyle]

Last night I saw a little stick like preying mantis looking thing hanging off of a piece of live rock. Its body was green and about a 1/2 inch long and 1 mm wide with arms that folded like that of a preying mantis. Its eyes were on two other sticks that forked out the top of its body. I know this is pretty vague but by the time I got to a camera it was gone.

Any ideas,
Pete-

[fragman]

sounds like a mantis shrimp to me. Good luck.

[gargoyle]

I checked out the mantis shrimp in the hitchhikers guide but my little stick thing does not look anything like it, maybe it's a juvinile. Anyone know where I can find pics of juvinile mantis shrimps?

[ScavDog]

My guess is a mantis juvenile:

http://www.imagequest3d.com/pages/current/pictureoftheweek/stomatopod/stomatopod.htm [img]images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

[gargoyle]

I did some searches with google and found a couple pictures of mantis shrimps(not realy shrimps :P). One picture depicting the second larval stage of the mantis shrimp looked exactly like mine! I got him out of the tank yesterday(took out the entire live rock he was on and pulled him off with some tweezers and put him into a bucket). If he can live until I set up a small tank I'll try to raise him by himself.
We'll see what happens.

[kennerd]

My juv. mantis has been doing fine in an acrylic "critter keeper" with a foam sponge filter/airline, and a small heater. he's doing fine.

The keeper is basically looks like an acrylic shoebox, with a plastic, pop-on, perforated screen-like top and a little clear trap door on top. They're for lizards, hermits, etc. Only cost me $6 or so, and I threw in a 1" southdown sand bed, some shells/rubble and a holey piece of live rock that he zips in/out of. He eats krill, and little snails that I throw in there from a freshwater plant holding tank I have. I put the snail in front of his lair & he bolts out & smahes it across the tank: then he eats them later, when I'm not around.


Simple little setup until my used 6 gallon eclipse tank shows up from a fellow reefs.org poster.

[ May 24, 2001: Message edited by: kennerd ]

[MedicineMan]

That's a classic description of a mantis shrimp (which get their common name because they look like preying mantis!) You definitely do **NOT** want it in your community tank! [img]images/smiles/icon_eek.gif[/img]