Peacock Mantis Shrimp

[Badfish]

Mantis Shrimp (Stomatopods) have great personalities, are very intelligent and are beautifully colored.The Peacock Mantis is a "Smashing" Mantis and an extremely aggressive shrimp that should be housed alone. It is recommend that you keep "Smashers" in an acrylic tank, as a fully grown Mantis Shrimp has been noted of being able to crack glass walls of most aquariums.

[larryandlaura]

Sweet shrimp! How often is he out and about?

[Badfish]

http://media10.dropshots.com/photos/881776/20111210/000721.jpg (http://www.dropshots.com/BadFish#date/2011-12-10/00:07:21)
Thanks Larry, his name is Moe Smashins and he's out all the time. They are very active animals with fun personalities; He's either looking something to eat, playing with his piece of PVC pipe I gave him. They aren't the crazed killing machines that everyone thinks they are, I put my hand in his tank all day and he stays pretty chill. Unless you throw some food in there, then it's "Welcome to the Thunder Dome" time.


Moe getting his "Swoll" on
http://media10.dropshots.com/photos/881776/20110712/203506.jpg
http://media9.dropshots.com/photos/881776/20110712/203511.jpg
http://media9.dropshots.com/photos/881776/20110712/203517.jpg


http://media11.dropshots.com/photos/881776/20111219/073013.jpg

[bluwc]

I thought about adding one of those to a 30g fowlr tank when I set it up next year. I've been doing reading and some don't recommend putting them in aga because they have been known to break it when they smash. Thoughts?

Could it coexist with a little puffer and dwarf lion? I'd like to have more than one thing in the tank

[Badfish]

I keep him in a 26 gal AIO acrylic tank, I'm not sure if i would chance keeping a smasher in a glass tank, but people do it. They don't actively go around hitting the tank, the problem is whenever I feed him, he takes his food in to his cave where he has dug through the substrate to bottom of the tank and uses the aquarium as a hard surface to hold his meal against while he smashes the bejeezus out of it (I usually feed him table shrimp or krill too). Peacocks get pretty big, there are other smaller mantis that might be ok in a glass tank, I know Purple and Orange Spots stay smaller.

http://media9.dropshots.com/photos/881776/20110819/162954.jpg


Here is a really good site that i used when I was researching them, its from Dr. Roy Caldwell
Roy's List of Stomatopods for the Aquarium (http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/arthropoda/crustacea/malacostraca/eumalacostraca/royslist/index.html#directory)

Here are the 3 I've seen most commonly sold in stores
Purple Spot (Gonodactylus smithii (http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/arthropoda/crustacea/malacostraca/eumalacostraca/royslist/species.php?name=g_smithii))
Orange Spot (Gonodactylaceus ternatensis (http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/arthropoda/crustacea/malacostraca/eumalacostraca/royslist/species.php?name=g_ternatensis))
Peacock (Odontodactylus scyllarus (http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/arthropoda/crustacea/malacostraca/eumalacostraca/royslist/species.php?name=o_scyllarus))

As for coexisting with a little puffer and dwarf lion, I'm not sure. I keep stars and an urchin in his tank with him and he leaves them alone for the most part. I would try the lion before the puffer though, the lion would have to swallow the whole shrimp but a puffer could nip at him. Of course if you get a "spearer" mantis then no fish would be safe, I would suggest sticking with a "smasher" mantis

[lobster_mobster]

Moe the Monster!