All, I need advice from anyone who's a Mantis Shrimp Expert. I have a 40 Gallon Breeder (no Fish) that I'm using to cure some TBS Live Rock. It has been in there since December and tonight when I went to shutoff the light, I noticed hundreds of 1 to 2 MM critters swimming at the top. I put a couple under my Microscope, and they are Smasher Mantis Larva. I have at least 2 adults in the Tank. Will these die off? If I had a fish or two, they would be eaten but the Tank is bare. The last thing I need is dozens of baby Mantis Shrimps.
Mantis Shrimp Experts
- Thread starter W31Olds
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fishguy242
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I'd try to sieve as many as possible out ,try to figure out male and remove ?
@Stang67 @OrchidMiss ?
@Stang67 @OrchidMiss ?
littlefoxx
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Honestly this is soooo cool! Jealous! But Im not sure how to deal with the issue if there are that many of them. @Stomatopods17 is a good person to ask though!
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They are still swarming this morning but maybe not as many. Too bad my Mandarin is in my DT. He would wipe them out in short order. There were hundreds last night. I'm hoping they die off because all of the Live Rock is going in my new tank and I still have a lot of hitchhikers, mainly small Crabs and Hermits.
Watch out for those red Mithrax crabs… mine started eating all my coral!
Yea, I got one of those and had to pull him because if they get real hungry, they will snack on Corals. Mine wiped out one of my Duncans before I caught on. They can get pretty large too. Mine has doubled in size.
Stomatopods17
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You would never get free floating stomatopod larvae hitchhiking in live rock in such large quantities, its possible for some to get trapped but unless there's a fertile mother somewhere in the tank you likely wouldn't have this many
Its even less likely than getting one to actually live and settle considering researches have tried hundreds of times and only got 1 singular successful recording of a G. chiragra settling. The larvae are cannibalistic and die to filtration, predation, and other unknown factors.
I would need those microscopic images to ID what those are but FWIW a lot of fry are 'mantis shrimp like' whether its skeleton shrimp, mysid shrimp, amphipods, etc.
Its even less likely than getting one to actually live and settle considering researches have tried hundreds of times and only got 1 singular successful recording of a G. chiragra settling. The larvae are cannibalistic and die to filtration, predation, and other unknown factors.
I would need those microscopic images to ID what those are but FWIW a lot of fry are 'mantis shrimp like' whether its skeleton shrimp, mysid shrimp, amphipods, etc.
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Stoma, these were not hitchhikers, but offspring from a couple of Mantis Shrimp in my Tank. They seem to be dissipating since this morning. I just hope they are not taking up residence in my live rock.
Stomatopods17
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I missed the part about 2 adults but it shouldn't become problematic.
We literally cannot get larvae to settle into juveniles, so much has been tried and nothing really works out bar 1 singular instance of a G. chiragra which feels more like a fluke rather than any real progress. They'll kill each other as larvae and the rest likely will die for other reasons such as lack of remaining food.
If you wanted to scoop them out they will swim up to a flash light at night so you can net them. If one did settle it would not be a significant threat to fish, it'd have to survive off mysid and amphipods. Wrasses and puffers easily kill them.
We literally cannot get larvae to settle into juveniles, so much has been tried and nothing really works out bar 1 singular instance of a G. chiragra which feels more like a fluke rather than any real progress. They'll kill each other as larvae and the rest likely will die for other reasons such as lack of remaining food.
If you wanted to scoop them out they will swim up to a flash light at night so you can net them. If one did settle it would not be a significant threat to fish, it'd have to survive off mysid and amphipods. Wrasses and puffers easily kill them.
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This is the season for mantis babies! Congratulations.
You’re right, if there were fish in the tank, these little mantis would make a nutritious snack. No worries, they will die off without dosing micro sized foods. Think of them as clownfish fry.
And if you are providing life support for TBS rock in a 40gal breeder, it's not curing, it is an observation tank. Lots of confusion out in forum land about curing and observation.
Rock on.
Wen
I agree it's not curing. I don't think you recommend that anyway. It's been in this holding Tank for 4 months while I wait for my new Tank so I can remove hitchhikers. I did have a lot of barnacles that have died off.
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