# Mantis Shrimp are breathtaking!



## MichaelAngelo (Jul 6, 2009)

Some of you may know how hard I've been looking for a stomatopod (mantis shrimp).

Well I've had a G. Chiragra for over a week now and it's nothing short of amazing experience. I got him at Sea-U-Marine and he was sold a a Peacock, so now I've learned to be a more critical buyer, but he's cool just the same.

Cool stuff about owning stomatopods:
-really cool burrow diggers, basically smashes up rocks into rubble and piles them up around their burrow
-My species closes his burrow at night and opens it in the morning
-Voracious eaters!
-relatively hardy!
-never forget you need an unbreakable (plastic) heater! I just got interrupted from writing this because he was smashing on the heater (looking for rubble for his burrow of course).

I fed him a feeder crayfish today and it was other-wordly to see the battle!



My G. Chiragra:


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## MichaelAngelo (Jul 6, 2009)

sorry about the huge image, html img tag wouldn't work...

I have to add: if anybody has one of these lying around in their live rock or find one somewhere, I'm starting to collect them so bring'em over! (pm me!)


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

fixed the tag for you - leave out the "view-current-image" part of the URL 

Congrats on finding it. I love the hole digging and covering of the burrows thing - my jawfish do that at night and when they wake up too.


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## MichaelAngelo (Jul 6, 2009)

ameekplec. said:


> fixed the tag for you - leave out the "view-current-image" part of the URL
> 
> Congrats on finding it. I love the hole digging and covering of the burrows thing - my jawfish do that at night and when they wake up too.


I tired using html img tags to make the width manageable like 500px or something... but I guess html is disabled in posts.


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## derekc85 (Oct 23, 2008)

nice find mike, i'm sure for a couple of bucks you can find a feeder damsel and would be pretty interesting to watch =)


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## MichaelAngelo (Jul 6, 2009)

derekc85 said:


> nice find mike, i'm sure for a couple of bucks you can find a feeder damsel and would be pretty interesting to watch =)


lol that's your substrate you see there =P


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## EcoAquatic (Mar 18, 2008)

Glad to see you've got things going, very nice!


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## MichaelAngelo (Jul 6, 2009)

EcoAquatic said:


> Glad to see you've got things going, very nice!


And your live rock =D lol


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

derekc85 said:


> nice find mike, i'm sure for a couple of bucks you can find a feeder damsel and would be pretty interesting to watch =)


Probably won't get fish. Try other inverts (crabs, shrimp, hermits) for a good "show".

If people have unwanted crabs (a lot of peeps do) you can watch the mantis take them out


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## MichaelAngelo (Jul 6, 2009)

ameekplec. said:


> Probably won't get fish. Try other inverts (crabs, shrimp, hermits) for a good "show".
> 
> If people have unwanted crabs (a lot of peeps do) you can watch the mantis take them out


Yeah! Last week I tried a big al's feeder crayfish and it was awesome! Not sure about using freshwater feeder meat though.

Saltwater feeders... hmm do they exist? Where can I find cheap snails and hermits? Or random crabs for that matter =)


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

In this case (I hadn't realized in the other thread that this was the purpose), I think FW crayfish would be fine with your mantis - go to a local bait shop and they should have some for you, a lot cheaper than BAs.


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## MichaelAngelo (Jul 6, 2009)

ameekplec. said:


> In this case (I hadn't realized in the other thread that this was the purpose), I think FW crayfish would be fine with your mantis - go to a local bait shop and they should have some for you, a lot cheaper than BAs.


I've never heard of a bait shop... hmm just searched for 'toronto bait shop crayfish' and I found my other thread... wow that was a fast index =P

Any idea about bait shops in the GTA (preferably Markham or scarborough)? I did a quick google search and someone wrote you can't find live crayfish bait around here.


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## conix67 (Jul 27, 2008)

My friends kids can bring 10-20 crayfishes in about 15 min. They go to a local park (near Yonge and Rutherford) and there's a small stream with tons of crayfishes under rocks.. not sure if there's a law regulating crayfish hunting


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## MichaelAngelo (Jul 6, 2009)

conix67 said:


> My friends kids can bring 10-20 crayfishes in about 15 min. They go to a local park (near Yonge and Rutherford) and there's a small stream with tons of crayfishes under rocks.. not sure if there's a law regulating crayfish hunting


LOL that's hilarious, I should get into that. pm'd you my number =P


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## ksimdjembe (Nov 11, 2006)

it is now not legal to catch and remove crayfish out of the stream they are found in. only a recent change in the rules as of this year. HTH.


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## conix67 (Jul 27, 2008)

ksimdjembe said:


> it is now not legal to catch and remove crayfish out of the stream they are found in. only a recent change in the rules as of this year. HTH.


I wonder how government educates people on this. I wonder what the problem would be with crayfish hunting though. The kids normally catch them for fun, keep them for a day or so then return them to the stream.

What's next? No dragon fly hunting? Flies and mosquitous protected?


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## Jackson (Jan 30, 2009)

conix67 said:


> I wonder how government educates people on this. I wonder what the problem would be with crayfish hunting though. The kids normally catch them for fun, keep them for a day or so then return them to the stream.
> 
> What's next? No dragon fly hunting? Flies and mosquitous protected?


They are said to be invasive and are also said to carry disease. You are not allowed to fish with them from what i know as well. I could be wrong on the last one


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## bigfishy (Jun 19, 2009)

ksimdjembe said:


> it is now not legal to catch and remove crayfish out of the stream they are found in. only a recent change in the rules as of this year. HTH.


If you can't take them out from a stream, try a lake!

I am sure most of you know the place called Jackson Point! (Lake Simcoe)

There an island that you can walk out to. Between the island and the parking lot, the rock area, you can find or catch crayfish under the rocks (any size, any color (seen an electric blue once)

^^


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## Jackson (Jan 30, 2009)

bigfishy said:


> If you can't take them out from a stream, try a lake!
> 
> I am sure most of you know the place called Jackson Point! (Lake Simcoe)
> 
> ...


It is not legal from any body of water.


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