Been wanting to do a 60 ish gallon tank just for a mantis shrimp. Anyone have any experience keeping them and if so I would love to hear about your experiences and any advice.
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Be sure you know which species you are getting.-- http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/arthropoda/crustacea/malacostraca/eumalacostraca/royslist/ The ones listed as active/interactive are awesome. I've kept O. scyllarus, G. smithii, O. havanensis, and G. chiragra. My favorite of those was probably the O. havanensis. Same personality as the O scyllarus but in a smaller package, not prone to shell rot, and cheaper to feed. You need to offer the smashers hermits and snails at least periodically or they'll lose their raptorial appendage.
https://www.kpaquatics.com/product-category/marine-inverts/shrimps-and-mantis-shrimps/ has a decent selection. Bluezoo has a few species as well.
ETA--
That’s a cool/sad story lol.About 25 years or maybe more ago I had a 210 gallon tank that was running for well over a year, it had rock strait out or the south pacific, back then it was always recommended to fresh water dip your rock witch I did. Well I had a clown disappear and then I had a power blue tang just disappear. Turns out I had a mantis shrimp had to take all the rock out to catch him
Ahh that’s unfortunate. They seem fun to watch eatI kept a green mantis once, frankly bored the p... out of me; I gave him away.
Thanks for that valuable info on the snails and rubble. I planned on making sure he was able to burrow and make a home.That's an O scyllarus aka Peacock mantis. Need to provide plenty of rubble for it to form a burrow and subdued lighting to avoid shell rot. Mine never killed any fish but it always had live hermits and snails available. I bought hermits/snails in bulk online and reupped every month or two.