mantis shrimps

[nympho]

anyone keep these amazing animals.

where would you get them in the uk -never seen any for sale. are they hard to look after?

ive heard they are considered a pest in aquariums, but cant belive ppl would rather keep fish than these awesome critters! theyve got to be the kings of the invert world - intelligent , sophisticated behaviour, fast moving and interesting, and amazingly colourful , and to top it off, the ability to smash glass with club like weapons that move at the speed of bullets. what more could you want of a pet !

 

[bugzilla]

I've not kept one intentionally but have had one turn up in my tank

There are actually 2 types - clubbers and spearers and loads of species of each, most being quite small and relatively harmless. Mine was a spearer and took mysid shrimp from the water column by skewering them on its arms

The good ones to keep as pets are the peacock mantis shrimps. These get to about 6" long (maybe more), have fabulous colours and are REALLY inteligent. They are'nt overly popular because you can't keep anything else with them (possibly corals I suppose :huh: ), they are very reclusive so you'll rarely see them, they can break the glass of the aquarium and the set-up required to keep one will set you back £hundreds .

If you don't mind the expense and other bad points these are fantastic pets IMO

 

[hibiscusmile]

Never seen any, can you post a pic of one?

 

[darkspeed]

 

[bugzilla]

Love the last one, I've never heard of them being eaten before but makes sense given their size

 

[mantidsandgeckos]

Mantis shrimps are delicious!!

 

[chrisboy101]

does anyone even keep these

 

[bugzilla]

Plenty of people keep them and they are dead easy to get hold of, just have to order one from a marine retailer. You won't see one in a shop very often because of the issues I detailed above

 

[chrisboy101]

brekin a tank. how they manage that?

 

[Peter Clausen]

I heard once that mantis shrimp have the most complex eyes in the animal kingdom. I'm not sure what they might mean, exactly, but does anybody have any additional info. to back this up? I remember reading once that birds had more kinds of "cones" in their eyes than people and that butterflies had like 5 different kinds, allowing them to see colors we can't and such.

 

[chrisboy101]

I heard once that mantis shrimp have the most complex eyes in the animal kingdom. I'm not sure what they might mean, exactly, but does anybody have any additional info. to back this up? I remember reading once that birds had more kinds of "cones" in their eyes than people and that butterflies had like 5 different kinds, allowing them to see colors we can't and such.

i read that in a book called ''extreme nature'' which tells wat unique things certain animals do, and for mantis shrimps it says ''to be able to see colours we cant even imagine''

 

[chrisboy101]

so yes its true

 

[idolomantis]

i read that in a book called ''extreme nature'' which tells wat unique things certain animals do, and for mantis shrimps it says ''to be able to see colours we cant even imagine''

explains why its that colored too, it looks like a clown!

 

[bugzilla]

brekin a tank. how they manage that?

They get their name from their front arms(?) that they use to either club prey to pieces or to skewer them. Clubbers feed on crabs etc while spearers feed on things like smal fish.

It's the clubber species that can break glass. They literally punch their way through.

Their eyes are really cool. No idea what they see but more than likely will see alot in the blue spectrum of light (uv and the like) since red light is filtered out of water very quickly. The eyes are also independant of one another like a chameleons eyes.

 

[acerbity]

I see these guys sometimes at a local aquarium specialty petshop "pet safari" I believe. They even had a Wobbygon (sp?).

Stranger still is the snapping shrimp. It creates a collapsing bubble that is 5 times hotter than the sun http://stilton.tnw.utwente.nl/shrimp/

 

[macro junkie]

i seen a documentary on these once with david attenborough if u can find it u should watch it.

 

[Morpheus uk]

OMFG i gots to get me one of those :blink:

 

[idolomantis]

OMFG i gots to get me one of those :blink:

4 words: they bite really hard... as long as you dont get bitten are they cool. lol

 

[The_Asa]

I missed this thread...and those are some really, really, really, weird animals. Too weird for me.