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Mantis shrimp Anonymous
My new mantis shrimp Rachael, Female Odontodactylous scyllarus, about 4" long, marine crustacean, Smasher. In a 10 gallon currently, will be in an acrylic 30 gallon soon. Search "stomatopod" on wikipedia if you are clueless.
>> Anonymous
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Closeup of face
>> Anonymous
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And my Pseudosquilla ciliata, Cindy. A 2.5" female, spearer type. Unlike most other species of spearers it is quite active and only grows 4" max.
>> Anonymous
they cant smash that tank?
>> Anonymous
It actually takes a bit of force to smash a tank. The peacock won't be capable of it until at least 5" (max adult size around 7") and most people keep them in glass tank anyways. As long as the bottom is lined with plexi they will most likely never break it. The smaller one couldn't at any age.
>> Anonymous
Are they hard to keep? What do you feed them?
>> Anonymous
>>233668

While mantis shrimp can break tanks, it is much more rare than internet legend would suggest. It takes a big shrimp, a thin glass tank, and a bit of bad luck.

Acrylic is more than 10x stronger than glass with respect to impact. Acrylic tank = no worries.
>> Anonymous
she looks pretty damn delicious.
>> Anonymous
>>233668
They can smash ANYTHING if they know its smashable. The trick is to not letting them realize the tank can be smashed.
>> Stomatobeast
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They aren't hard to keep at all. If you have the basics of a saltwater tank down you can keep a mantis. Biggest issues are that they are sensitive to heavy metals like most marine inverts, and are very sensitive when molting. Otherwise they are very hardy, many species are active and many are colorful. And for feeding all you need is 2-3 frozen marine meats to feed on a rotation once every 2-3 days and enough money to buy a snail or crab once a month or more for exercise. Smashers (most commonly kept) feed mainly on crabs, snails, and hermits in the wild. They may also attack fish, but are usually safe with well secured corals. If you are serious about keeping a mantis I suggest checking out stomatopod.com/forum. Here's another pic of Rachael, looking all made like (or cross eyed XD )