Stomatopod Log Entry: March 6,1998

Contributor: Mr. Kuehne

Key ideas: Cohabitation of mantis shrimp and lionfish.

I have a really neat tank at home. It's a 20 gallon with UGF heater, hood, and a couple of live rocks. I started out with a 6 inch <ed. 12 cm> mantis shrimp I bought at a local retail store. This guy is really pretty. he is green with red and blue trim. His tail and underside swimmerets look like peacock feathers of blue and red. He eats a small gold fish per day. He can't see very well so I need to feed him the orange colored gold fish. He has gotten faily use to eating. I throw in the gold fish, tap on the glass to let him know its there and within a min. or two he has captured it. This is a very clean creature constantly using these special arms he has to clean himself off (sort of like a cat). He never wastes food and never leaves any pieces uneaten.

In thinking that he was probably lonely and needing a home for a very lonely tail less lion fish I dicided to try them together. Tensions were high for the first couple of weeks after I put the lion fish in with him. Especially during feeding. I always feed two small gold fish and at this point the lion fish will eat his instantly after I put them in the tank. Then the lion fish moves out of the way for the mantis shrimp to eat. They seem to have a mutual respect for each other and will at times be sitting within inches of each other. They both (especially the lion fish) seem to enjoy each others company most of the time. This is truely my most favorite tank. It is clean, doesn't require much maintenance and the inhabitants live a very unique life together.

I also have a 5.5 gallon tank wich is the home of a small 2 inch <ed. 5 cm> mantis shrimp of the florida variety. Mantis shrimp are very hardy and make interesting pets.

Mr. Kuehne

Editor's notes: With regards to the feeding of goldfish daily to marine specimens, I read somewhere that this should not be done regularly, as the FW samples lack certain nutrients needed by saltwater fish, etc, and that this could cause liver dysfunction in the marine organisms in the long run. In addition, it is fairly expensive (I would guess) to be feeding a live prey to the things daily, when it readily accepts a variety of frozen foods (shrimp, mussel, etc).

* from an archived post in 1992.

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