Xavier
Mantis Club President
I got this wonderful idea to start a Mantis Tank after seeing Travisurfer’s thread on nano-reef, so I started looking into all of the requirements a mantis shrimp has and what I could do to convince my mom to let me get one. Albeit I found out that they are amazing creatures and not shrimps at all! Also I found out that some species could break a tank’s glass and that kind of detoured me for a while. But when the store I volunteer at got one in, my interest sparked again, and I started feeding and generally taking care of it at the store. When he started doing really well and growing (yes we had him for a while, like 3 months) I decided to start planning a tank for him. I did a lot of research on the species and their behavior and when I found out that a ten gallon was not to small for a lot of species it got me excited.
So I got my 29 gallon(which was downgraded to the ten gallon) ready for a new inhabitant. I made sure everything was straight but when my friend told me he was getting a shipment of rock from Tampa Bay Saltwater, I jumped up and down with excitement! This was where I was planning on getting my mantis shrimp from in the first place! But when I was told my mom wouldn’t let me buy stuff that had to be shipped I lost that plan of attack. I posted on Richard’s (the man who runs and operates TBS) forum to see if he would be able to throw in a mantis shrimp with my buddy’s order and he didn’t reply. I kind of lost hope in that and just started looking again locally for a suitable species. When I got the call I wanted from my friend who got the shipment, Steve, he started telling me about all the things that came in on the rock(luckily I have free mobile to mobile!) and at the end of the list (yes it was a long list!) I heard that he saw one more bag. He picked it up and read it aloud to me. “For your buddy” was written in sharpie on the outside of the bag and the contents were one (1) lime-green mantis shrimp coming in at about 2 ½ inches! Man was I excited! I told him I wouldn’t be able to get it for a day or two (me and my aquarium are working on a long distance relationship) and I asked him to bring it to the store. He agreed and I picked it up from him a day later(sooner that expected!). I got him to my tank and I acclimated him for all of about 15 minutes (thing about the acclimation when they hitchhike(and live) on the live rock they usually come from!) and let him loose my tank which also carries my clean up crew! After a couple dropped names I settled on Kermit and I left him in the tank for a week unsupervised. That’s where I’m at now; I feed him once a week (I know I know!!!) and I do my water changes! That’s about it!
Here is for all you picture hungry people!!!
(before the move)
(and now)
So I got my 29 gallon(which was downgraded to the ten gallon) ready for a new inhabitant. I made sure everything was straight but when my friend told me he was getting a shipment of rock from Tampa Bay Saltwater, I jumped up and down with excitement! This was where I was planning on getting my mantis shrimp from in the first place! But when I was told my mom wouldn’t let me buy stuff that had to be shipped I lost that plan of attack. I posted on Richard’s (the man who runs and operates TBS) forum to see if he would be able to throw in a mantis shrimp with my buddy’s order and he didn’t reply. I kind of lost hope in that and just started looking again locally for a suitable species. When I got the call I wanted from my friend who got the shipment, Steve, he started telling me about all the things that came in on the rock(luckily I have free mobile to mobile!) and at the end of the list (yes it was a long list!) I heard that he saw one more bag. He picked it up and read it aloud to me. “For your buddy” was written in sharpie on the outside of the bag and the contents were one (1) lime-green mantis shrimp coming in at about 2 ½ inches! Man was I excited! I told him I wouldn’t be able to get it for a day or two (me and my aquarium are working on a long distance relationship) and I asked him to bring it to the store. He agreed and I picked it up from him a day later(sooner that expected!). I got him to my tank and I acclimated him for all of about 15 minutes (thing about the acclimation when they hitchhike(and live) on the live rock they usually come from!) and let him loose my tank which also carries my clean up crew! After a couple dropped names I settled on Kermit and I left him in the tank for a week unsupervised. That’s where I’m at now; I feed him once a week (I know I know!!!) and I do my water changes! That’s about it!
Here is for all you picture hungry people!!!
(before the move)
(and now)
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I love that name for him! Very cute little guy! Looking forward to seeing the progression with this tank!!
