New ciliata

[Hadla]

You learn something new every day! Finally got my favorite species of mantis shrimp again a month ago! He's a Pseudosquilla ciliata. I just noticed the small orange spots on him which turns out to be shell rot and is caused by very bright lights. I have never seen it in my 12 years of mantis keeping!

Luckily he will recover in a few molts, it's not at the point that there are holes in his shell. I'm going to lower the light over his tank... some led light settings are just way too bright


Excuse the dirty glass lol

 

[MossyFroggyLove]

Poor guy. Hope he recovers soon!

Is that a hermit crab? Can mantis shrimp safely be housed with inverts?

 

[Fish Fan]

Can mantis shrimp safely be housed with inverts?

Oh for sure, no worries! That little hermit crab can't hurt the Mantis at all

 

[Hadla]

This one is a spearer which won’t pinch inverts so they are safe with him :)

 

[mcarroll]

shell rot and is caused by very bright lights.

Just curious how you reached that diagnosis… As well I'm curious is how you reached the conclusion that the lights were the cause?

 

[Hadla]

I found the mantis shrimp subreddit and saw some pictures with the same spots on them and one of the comments said it’s from too bright of a light and I already knew it happened a lot in peacocks if they had bright light so it made sense

 

[mcarroll]

Photo-reactive shells? Sounds crazy, but who knows I guess. ;)

I wonder if it's natural or some kind of photo-sesnsitizataion due to chemical or metal exposure? Inverts can be really sensitive.

 

[Hadla]

Yeah like I said I never saw it on any mantis, even peacocks, I kept since 2014 so who knows

 

[mcarroll]

Any notable difference in your setup this time vs others in the past? Style of plumbing or tank? Filtration differences?

 

[Hadla]

Any notable difference in your setup this time vs others in the past? Style of plumbing or tank? Filtration differences?

No it was just the lights, I didn’t realize how bright they were

 

[Stomatopods17]

Looks more like an injury than shellrot but I'd need a clearer look. Could even be healing from a previous infection.

Lights have correlation with shell disease but never causation. Turning whites down helps the same way it does with algae.

Mantis shrimp that are stressed/injured will develop the disease more frequently in dim tanks than ones that are happy in pristine water in SPS metal halide reefs.

This one is a spearer which won’t pinch inverts so they are safe with him :)

This is not actually true, spearers can punch and I've been hit by an L. maculata myself. Spearers don't use their clubs as tools typically but they will use them for hard bodied prey and warning shots all the same, they just have their preferences in the same way fish tend to 'work out' with our smashers.

Smashers, similarly, can spear as well and those are what cause deep infections/stitches/etc as they're serrated and get stuck in your skin (soft bodied), its the worst possible outcome to get speared by any of them. Hermit crabs and snails aren't perfectly safe and can be broken into, they just typically won't bother over softer shrimp/fish/frozen if offered.

 

[Hadla]

Thanks for the info! The mantis didn’t have the spots on his back when I got him in the mail from kpaquatics so I think it’s the start of shell rot but who knows? I guess I’ve just been lucky with spearers not bothering inverts lol

I’m not afraid of putting my hands in with the small mantises but I’d never try with the large spearers!