Beastie Id Please

[chris348]

Was about to start a 20 % water change, when this crawled rather quickly up onto the top of the coral.

Anyone know what on earth it could be?

http/s273.photobucket.com/albums/jj222/c...ent=beastie.jpg

Any help would be very much appreciated.

 

[emma12321]

Hi it looks like a mantis shrimp but don't quote me on that cos i don't have any marine fish

Emma

 

[TylerFerretLord]

I'm going to have to agree, it very much looks like a mantis.

 

[chris348]

Oh great !!!

Have heard bad things about these guys, but it cant be all bad surely?

 

[Colin_T]

yep it's a lil white mantis shrimp. Isn't he cute. Stab him with a cake fork

 

[chris348]

Uh oh this is going to get out of hand, i can tell

 

[SkiFletch]

Depends on what kind it is and what you want to keep in the tank with it . That is surely a mantis though. The way to ID them is to look at their front main claws. There will be a spot on their "elbows" usually pointing forward. This spot is called a Meral Spot. The size, color, and orientation of the Meral Spot is the definitive way to ID them down to the species level. Anyway you can get a good look at those and/or a better few pics of them?

There are not too many white mantids though so I may be able to narrow this down:

Gonodactylus childi
Gonodactylus chiragra
Haptosquilla stoliura
Neogonodactylus oerstedii

Those would be my top choices. Any idea where in the world your LR came from?

 

[chris348]

Hi Ski,

I can confirm that some of the LR came from Fiji, the rest I am not too sure to be honest but can find out.

I have tried to track the beastie down again, but its gone into hiding. Having done some reading, you recommend the soda bottle trap ?

Would this cause any problems to my Peppermint Shrimp?

edit, LF also came from Indonesia too. Does this help?

 

[Colin_T]

mantis shrimp will kill peppermint shrimp if they catch them.

 

[SkiFletch]

In this case, it probably nails it down to Haptosquilla stoliura provided it is in fact white... The other gonadactylids I listed are from french polynesia and the indian ocean, and the neogonadactylus are all carribean species.

According to Roy's List, these guys stay very small and are not active/interactive in the aquarium. Their diet will likely be small snails, hermits, and decorative shrimp and will probably stay away from most fish. They MAY be tempted by small clownfish bedding down for the night, but since they're not nocturnal, chances are most fish would be safe with them. I would NOT keep them with clown or neon gobies though.

If you do want to catch him, the soda bottle trap will work. One word of caution though, if you do catch both shrimp at the same time... Well, the peppermint would probably not fare well in that situation.

 

[Crazy fishes]

"Stab him with the cake fork!!" LOL I love that; the funniest image is running through my mind!! Nice one Colin and there was me thinking you cared for marine life. Didn't you recently tell someone to humanely kill a nudibranch after some else said to kill it in the microwave!!!

Chris if you want anything else in the tank that is a live removing the mantis is a really good way to go!! I have read that people try to bottle trap but they generally aren't sucessful; inevitably people end up removing all the rock work trying to find the little b@*@$%!!! Bottle traps are certainly worth a go though.

Regards

 

[chris348]

Got it !!!!!!!!!

Found the thing crawling across the top of the coral. Managed to life the rock out and let him literally drop out onto the kitchen table

Happy days !!!

 

[Colin_T]

hey well done, now you just have to get the other one

 

[chris348]

Gulp !!!

Other one?

 

[Colin_T]

oh yeah, they always live in pairs.
Did you get the male of female? Hopefully the female, she would have had little red eggs under her tail.