Care Tidbits:
Short answer: Yep.
Provide some sort of potential "dwelling" for the
thing as well. For the small varieties of smashers (<5 cm,2
in) I found large shells to be an attractive housing, although
you could actually use any suitable container with 1 or 2
openings with about the same diameter (up to 3 x) as the critter.
I keep one of the small types (Gonodactylus sp.) in a 1.5 g tank,
undergravel filtration, changing the water 1x weekly, with daily
feedings. Some larger types I keep in 10 g glass tanks (although
I'm sure they would do just fine in 5 g containers), along with
several damselfishes, anemones, and hermits, biweekly 25%-30%
water changes, daily feedings. These things I provide with long
hollow plastic tubes, which they seal off at either end. These
are all smashers, as opposed to spearer types, who may prefer to
"dig" their own burrows.
Food is a variety of frozen stuff (shrimp pieces, squid tentacles, mussel pieces), although I generally stick with shrimp. I once introduced a large FW crayfish to the larger tanks. The thing went into the mantis tube after moving around the place. I heard a sharp crack, and it went flying out of the tube minus one claw. Being mean in nature, I herded it back into the tube. The mantis seemed generally unconcerned about the intruder (although the large crayfish pincers were sometimes right next to its vulnerable head and eyes), but I could soon hear cracking sounds from inside the tube. After awhile, the mantis threw out the dead body of the animal.
The things are extremely hardy (one researcher lost a transpacific shipment of the things, and only got it back from the airline several days later, but most of the mantis shrimps were still ok--- compare this to cephalopods, which frequently die even with the utmost care). You could probably stick one in a small gallon container without any filter, feed it weekly, with partial water changes after each feeding, and it would still do ok (although of course this is not recommended).
Web Site Author: A. Sunjian
Site Created February 3, 1998
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