Mantis Or Not ?

[psycho-killer]

hey there all, i have a bit of a difficult situation, i was cleaning my marine thank and saw a very small see through thingie that looks like a mantis shrimp but not even 1 cm big about the lengt of ur finger nail...

are they so small when they are young ? looks a bit see through but the body shape looks like a shrimp especially mantis but very very small i just saw it suddenly.. its hard to take a picture becasue of the size,i managed to caught it and put it in my 25 litre quaritine tank,will see if i can get a picture
..

 

[Musho3210]

does it make any clicking noise? If it does it narrows it down to either a pistol or mantis shrimp. Does it have one abnormally big claw?

 

[Lynden]

Sometimes when looking at my tank I could swear I see the shed skins of tiny mantis shrimps floating through the tank... on closer inspecition they are the shed skins of harmless and beneficial amphipods. They often reach a centimetre in length and are clear, grey, or brown, and even a very light shade of red, pink or blue.

 

[psycho-killer]

this one is definetly alive it runs around the tank,i have a small piece of rock in my quarantine tank with sick zoos on it think hes under there,will try to figure out the macro shot on my camera and see what i can do

 

[Lynden]

Well of course the amphipods run around as well, when they are more than just a shell. Another option for your case is mysids; I don't ever get these alive so I can't tell you exactly what they do, but they are quite harmless and probably interesting to watch.

 

[littleme1969]

Mantis shrimp are supper quick, they dart from area to another hiding as they go, you will rarely see one out for more than a few seconds. i have 2 on my 25g and they are harmless. Confirmed as been a very small variety that will pose no harm to fish corals hermits etc. They do make a very distinctive clicking noise, even my tiny one that is about 1cm long, so its a good way to tell. Also there shape is very distinctive too with bobbly eyes on stalks on top of their heads.
A pic would help with a positive ID, but it does sound like some kind of POD rather than a mantis as mentioned above

 

[Musho3210]

saltwater mysis shrimp are great for fish to eat, but since fish hunt them down quick and that they are cannibals, you wont get a large amount of mysis at once...

 

[craigybaby37]

hi there people i think i also have a mantis shrimp in my tank....i have seen it on a number of occasions but i think when it realises ime looking at it it soon runs away.

its about 3-4 cm in length and when you say about loud clicking noises ive knowtised for some time now that every so often there will be a few very loud clicks come from the tank which are loud enough for me to hear when i am sat at my computer which is about 4 foot away from the tank??

if i should be so lucky as to get any pictures i will post them up but its not looking likely.

anyways will it do any harm being in my tank?? if so what possible ways are there of getting it out??

thanks

 

[Musho3210]

make sure its a mantis not a pistol, if its a mantis various traps can work, you can make one out of a bottle or spend 5 dollars for a store bought one. If its a mantis remove from system BUT DONT KILL!!! Many people love mantis shrimp and would pay some money for one, your lfs might take in the mantis as well. If its a pistol, you can leave it in the tank, these things just like to kill pods and click away, shouldnt harm fish or anything.