Hi there! Read an article on these shrimps and found out they will only eat starfish!!!! Is it worth it for these shrimps????? I have alot of the little star fish that have come from various rocks and found them pleasing to the eye! Mantis are pleasing 2 the eye but is it worth sacrificing starfish?????

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo, Not One Little Bit!

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WHO'S YA DADDY

Are these also known as harlequin shrimps??? Telboy. These shrimps will they feed on anything else???? Is there anybody out there that owns one of these??????

mantis shrimp are the ones that hideaway in burrows or in the live rock,they make a clicking sound that can be very loud,if ya unlucky enough to get caught by one of these,they can split ya wide open down to the bone,there are many types of these creatures most folk sump em if ya can catch the buggers

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WHO'S YA DADDY

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WHO'S YA DADDY

Saw one in my tank last week swam up the front of the glass and settled on a big mushroom in front of me . typed in mantis shrimp on google and the first picture to come up was him.hes a quilla mantis ,a spear-er and pretty bad news for me and my fish if he grows up. tried to find some more information about him and was assured by my local fish store that it is very unlikely that he would survive to reach a size that would make him dangerous to me or my fish if my fish do start showing any signs of distress I'm afraid I am going to have to dismantle my reef and check every hole in the live rock and get him out of there carefully (nightmare You have seen the tank) Then he is destined for my sump. Grandad.

you could always try a trap of some kind mate,but ya gotta be lucky to catch the blighters even with a full strip down...ill keep me fingers crossed for ya...wouldnt want ya to have to dismantle ya pride n joy grandad

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WHO'S YA DADDY

Thanks telboy will try to rig up a trap that wont injure my inverts.

Hello big dave, dont know where you read this article? If I was you ,I would type in U tube videos, once there type in mantis shrimp ,there is a list of short films , that I think you will enjoy. grandad

Ah the lovely thumb splitter!

The shrimp you describe as being a starfish muncher sounds more like a harlequin shrimp not a mantis neither are particularly desirable in a reef tank however I do know of someone that had 3 or 4 mantis shrimps in a reef tank with no problems.

You need to try and identify the specific mantis you have and find out exactly what you are dealing with ultimate size being a consideration, I suspect many people have mantis shrimps in their reefs and don't even know it. Not all of them will turn into 4 inch long monsters some will get no bigger than a cleaner shrimp.

All however do have a nasty habit of splitting thumbs.

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Alan

Thweeerp!