Problem with keeping mantis shrimp.

[MantisShrimpAgony]

I've had my peacock mantis shrimp for a few weeks now. I've been fascinated by mantis shrimp for ages, from the moment I first saw one on an old BBC documentary. I don't know too much about keeping fish or especially invertebrates, but the first few days it was fine, I followed all the guides and set up the tank and put my mantis shrimp into it, and it was eating normally, mostly stayed in its burrow, and I was happy. My wife thought it was really cool too, and it was a source of interest for both of us.

Within a few days, though, my mantis shrimp started hitting the glass. It seemed random, but it was so loud! I remember my wife was sitting by it and when she got up and left my mantis shrimp just snapped at the glass two or three times. I was wondering if this thing could actually break the glass, and I wanted to make a post, but between a hectic week at work and overall fatigue I just never got to it.

One day my wife came back with some smaller fish (I don't know what they were called), and tried to add them to the tank. Unfortunately (or maybe just obviously) my mantis shrimp destroyed those fish in a matter of a day. It seemed like adding the fish changed something about my mantis shrimp. It seemed much more violent after that, and before I had a chance to ask about whether it could break the tank, I was jarred awake around 3:00am by a loud snapping noise. I ran to the living room and saw that my mantis shrimp had put a crack in the glass of the aquarium. Oh well, what now?

I decided to make it an aquarium out of plexiglass. It was a weekend jog and my mantis shrimp was happy. I was happy. The clangs of it hitting the tank were really mellow compared to the class, and I didn't have to worry about it breaking anything. For a few days things were more or less back to normal.

My wife started spending more time with my mantis shrimp. At the evenings she would sit with it, or sometimes drop it small little clams we'd buy to feed it. I noticed though, that every time my wife left the tank, my mantis shrimp would start snapping at the plexiglass. It wasn't a huge danger anymore, but it was still loud. It would go on literally for minutes.

About a week of this went on, and it actually caused some issues between my wife and I. I asked her to stop sitting with it, because it seemed like that triggered a minutes-long banging session by my mantis shrimp. She felt like we got the thing to enjoy it and interact with it. I'm ashamed to say the relationship was actually significantly strained about this. I considered giving the shrimp away, but at this point, it almost felt like a curse-- and how could I put that on someone else?

My mantis shrimp started hitting the plexiglass more and more over the past few days. In the morning, when my wife and I hug to say goodbye to go to work, my mantis shrimp goes crazy. I can't tell if I'm going crazy. It seems like we exchange any positive interaction in front of it, it goes berserk and starts snapping at the glass. My wife feels bad for my mantis shrimp, and she's totally against giving it away or selling it. She defends my mantis shrimp when we argue, and it's turning into this weird thing where when I'm arguing with her, it's like me against them.

I don't know why I'm posting. This thing is putting stress on me in a way that I didn't imagine. Is this normal or am I just a really unlucky mantis shrimp owner? My wife and I hardly talk anymore, but she's always with my mantis shrimp in the evenings. I'm not sure what the best way to proceed is. All advice is appreciated.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Yeah, most fish and other critters don't tend to last very long with a mantis in the tank - mantis shrimp are very effective predators.


Anyway, that's odd behavior from the mantis - it actually sounds remarkably intelligent, and like it has chosen your wife as its person/owner.


Do you know what species it is, and do you have any pics of your setup for it?

How much, how often, and what are you feeding it?

Where exactly is it hitting the tank (i.e. is it just watching you outside of the tank and striking the tank as it stares at you both, is it hitting seemingly random spots in the tank, is it going back into its burrow and striking in there, etc.)?


I don't know if this would help, but it may be worth looking into setting up enrichment activities for the mantis - think along the lines of cat toys and such. The goal would be to give it something to entertain it:

The second link below actually has some info specifically on puffers, but both links contain some general ideas for fish/invert enrichment (play) ideas:

Enrichment for the fish???

Hello everyone! I am wondering if you guys know a way to provide enrichment / exciting experiences for my fish. I have a 45G tank with 2 clowns, 1 royal gramma, 1 gold midas blenny, 1 longnose hawkfish and 2 banggai cardinal. I would like to help them have some fun to make their lives happier...

www.reef2reef.com

Trigger stimulation, how do you prevent boredom?

I've got a juvi Blue Throat, maybe ~4 inches, and recently he's been spitting water around the tank even after I've fed. I feed 4 times daily so I highly doubt food is the goal here. I've read they can do this when bored or are just messing around. Moving around the rock work has been suggested...

www.reef2reef.com

Some other things I've seen include putting colored dice in with mantis shrimp, playing catch with octopuses, and some unique food puzzles for specific species (such as putting food in a toy boat at the top of the water for an octopus to sink so they can get the food in the boat).

Full disclosure, I don't have a mantis shrimp (at least, not yet - I might in the future), but for most animals, I look at cat and bird toys for some inspiration on how to provide them with some good, quality enrichment. So, my first thought would be some kind of food puzzle toy - though, I'm not sure what kind of food puzzle would work well for a mantis shrimp. Maybe the whiffle ball kind where the food is in the center and falls out of the holes when knocked around properly (you'd need a very durable &/or flexible ball for this, though, as it would likely be punched/speared repeatedly). If the food puzzle works or you want to try a different kind, there are plenty out there, and you can be as eccentric or mundane with them as you want.

Another thing you could try (I have no idea if the mantis would go for it or not) would be one of those bell/rattle ball toys (obviously you'd want one with no metal that can take a fair amount of abuse).

Also, while blaxsun's comment above was clearly intended to be humorous, you could actually try it in a variety of forms, and it might actually work. You could hang the "punching bag" in the tank a ways away from the walls and have it be either a rattle toy that sounds when "punched" or a food puzzle toy (you could do something like a mesh bag with food inside that either cuts open when speared, or one with wide enough holes that some food comes out when it's "punched" - you'd want to keep an eye on any mesh though, just to make sure the mantis doesn't get stuck, so this would be a "with supervision" toy until you've tested it enough to feel it's safe). Or, you could even have it be both a rattle and food puzzle (just put the rattle portion at the very top or very bottom would be my suggestion).

Again, not having a mantis, I have no idea if they would go for any of these toys or not, but I'd be interested to know if you decide to try any of them.

For mantis shrimp if you want to use a 'toy', you can make a tiny acrylic box with only one side that's covered with something breakable, such as really wedging in a half shell clam.

Mantis Shrimp are capable of strategically investigating objects for weak points and targetting them in those specific spots. They've even been known to wedge certain things against rock or a bit in the sand to get better hits off (hence if you ever fed one a snail you'll notice it spin the snail around a lot and then push it in the sand a bit before hitting once).

That said, maybe @Stomatopods17 would have some insight into your mantis shrimp's behavior here.


Also, as a side note, with your arguments with your wife - it seems like she is very attached to the mantis, so I would tell your wife that you really want to like the mantis and enjoy having it as a pet as much as she does, but that the mantis banging on the tank as often as it is is upsetting to you; from there, I would ask your wife if she would be willing to help you figure out why the mantis is banging on the tank and if there is anything you both could do to get it to stop banging so much. I would let her know that that would really help you to enjoy it more, and that an occasional bang from the mantis would be alright, but that it's just happening too frequently for you to be okay with it at the moment.

The point of this is to assure your wife that you both are on the same side (so it's not you vs. her and the mantis; you're not the enemy here) and to get you both working together cooperatively/as a team toward a solution that works for both of you and allows both of you to enjoy the mantis more without having a strained relationship and a stressed partner.

A potentially useful tip for this conversation - "I statements" are generally received better than "you statements."

I hope you guys are able to work through this, and that you'll both be able to enjoy the mantis together. Good luck!