Lime green Mantis shrimp VS Pistol shrimp

[Poseidon Johnson]

Hello! I purchased a Biocube 32 on fb marketplace for my son, the tank had 2 clowns, 2 camel shrimp, a long spiked sea urchin, a few zombie snails and a few hermits red and blue, a few muscles, there is also dead coral that is now coming back to life, the inhabitants were all healthy but the tank itself was somewhat neglected, after getting it cleaned up and getting the water parameters in range I began noticing new inhabitants (Hitchhiker's), a small nubby sea urchin with soft rounded spines and thin black tentacles that are difficult to see unless in the right light, a red emerald crab( I forget the technical name) and now a lime green Mantis shrimp only about an inch long. The problem lies in that I've added to my CUC 5 blue hermits, 1 striped serpent star and a pistol shrimp/watchman goby pair. The Mantis takes pellets/brine shrimp and kept to himself with its only interaction among tank mates having been avoiding being seen by the passing clowns, the pistol shrimp went right to work creating a labyrinth of tunnels and caves beneath the rock until I witnessed my new beautiful baby lime green mantis actively stalking and hunting the pistol, it pounced and I heard two snaps I'm assuming one from each shrimp (SHOTS FIRED) a once peaceful and nice neighborhood now turned upside down with the sounds of shots ringing and puffs of sand and debris clouding the once pristine water column, not to mention me! the huge ghetto bird lifting the roof to their house trying to apprehend the suspect of course to no avail (slippery little sucker) and I don't want to tear the tank down to remove the mantis so I plan to set a rudimentary trap and wait it out, however my son and I love the pistol goby duo and are concerned for their safety. The mantis only targets the slightly larger pistol shrimp, pays no mind to the equally sized goby or camel shrimp or anything else really he just seems to hate the pistol for some reason (territorial) my question is: do you think the slightly smaller mantis will kill the pistol or will they eventually work it out and establish their own territory? As of now the mantis went from peaking out of his one hole in a rock to restlessly roaming the cave system built by our buddy dozer the pistol shrimp apparently unhappy with every new territory that it's overthrown.

 

[Poseidon Johnson]

Poor little duo has been evicted to the corner of the tank after all that hard work (a solid week of burrowing)

 

[Poseidon Johnson]

There it is! Looks like he's established the right side of the tank, hopefully dozer doesn't blindly wonder over to the wrong side of town

 

[Cell]

It could eventually take out everything in the tank. Mantis shrimp are best in a dedicated tank if you value the other livestock.

 

[Poseidon Johnson]

It could eventually take out everything in the tank. Mantis shrimp are best in a dedicated tank if you value the other livestock.

Absolutely agree with you, however I did the research on this specific species and its max size is 2.5 inches which is significantly smaller than all other livestock besides a few small hermits, it's shown zero aggression towards any of the other livestock I think it's being territorial towards a similar species in the pistol shrimp. I do plan on catching and relocating it unless they can establish territories opposite of one another.

 

[thedon986]

Although it might stay smaller, the mantis will 100% kill that pistol shrimp eventually and maybe the goby. Pistol shrimp are not really hunters in the same league as the mantis. Looks like nice rock, probably harvested from the Gulf of Mexico which is how the mantis came along. I’ve gotten three shipments of rock and every single shipment has had a mantis in it so I always have one in my sump refugium, king of his own world.

 

[Poseidon Johnson]

Although it might stay smaller, the mantis will 100% kill that pistol shrimp eventually and maybe the goby. Pistol shrimp are not really hunters in the same league as the mantis. Looks like nice rock, probably harvested from the Gulf of Mexico which is how the mantis came along. I’ve gotten three shipments of rock and every single shipment has had a mantis in it so I always have one in my sump refugium, king of his own world.

Thank you for your reply, it has helped to persuade me into starting another tank just for the mantis, what type of mantis hitchhiker did you get in your rock? Are any of the 3 the same as the one I have?

 

[thedon986]

One was the electric lime green but had died in shipping. The one I have currently I haven’t identified yet. It’s darker with some green highlights around the eyes. Possibly neogonodactylus curacaoensis. It is very shy when I’m around. I can barely get it out of its live rock hole when feeding with tongs.

Here is an identification guide there are a bunch of variations of mantis out there. Really cool shrimp.

Roy's List of Stomatopods for the Aquarium

 

[Pickle_soup]

If you want to lose your tank to a shrimp, get a mantis shrimp.

 

[Poseidon Johnson]

If you want to lose your tank to a shrimp, get a mantis shrimp.

I caught it with a bottle trap last night, I was surprised how quickly it worked in under 10 minutes, it's in my sump now sitting on my filter floss in the bottle awaiting its new home .

 

[Poseidon Johnson]

I caught it with a bottle trap last night, I was surprised how quickly it worked in under 10 minutes, it's in my sump now sitting on my filter floss in the bottle awaiting its new home .

Just after replying to your message I ran down stairs to check on the little mantis sitting there in a water bottle on the first stage of my filtration apparently dead as a door nail it had suffocated, knowing that my son was gonna be devastated I did what any half way decent dad would do and attempted to give the shrimp mouth to mouth resuscitation... lol atleast that's what I told my son, No I swirled the water in the bottle a few times to oxygenate and it WORKED!!! his little flippers began slowly waving so I now have him in a small plastic tank with holes placed inside the warm and oxygen rich reef tank i removed him from now I'm off to get another frigging tank smh..

 

[Stomatopods17]

Hopefully I’m not too late on this but That species is N. Wennerae

“Lime green” is often associated with the reef flag species G. Viridis that doesn’t hitchhike frequently (unless your rock is from Indonesia)

It’s hard to make out but I can see the white meral spots in the first few photos while G. Viridis would be more pink or white with red streaks.

Color will change on molt. And that container it can break out of. I have that little container for my spiderlings and it would take less than a few minutes for it to crack that.