NOTE TO READERS....Mantis Shrimp are predators. I have included some links to video's. If the video shows the mantis shrimp hunting, I will note that in the link for squeamish readers.
What is a Mantis Shrimp?
Stomatopods are not shrimp. They reside in the subphylum Crustacea like shrimp. However, they reside in a completely different Class, Order, Family, and Genus. So why are they called Mantis Shrimp? A picture is worth a thousand words.
The obvious answer is that they look like some evil scientist managed to attach the front end of a praying mantis to the back end of a shrimp. As you can see, they have legs but they also have swimmerets and a powerful tail. When people tell you to tip a glass against the LR or use the soda bottle trick to capture a mantis, you won't be successful. They can swim quite well as you will see in the following videos and will swim right out of those traps.
There are 17 families of Mantis Shrimp and there are many species within each family.
FAMILIES:
Alainosquillidae, Bathysquillidae, Coronididae, Erythrosquillidae, Eurysquillidae, Gonodactylidae, Hemisquillidae, Indosquillidae, Lysiosquillidae, Nannosquillidae, Odontodactylidae, Parasquillidae, Protosquillidae, Pseudosquillidae, Squillidae, Takuidae, Tetrasquillidae
Okay....that's enough big words. For practical purposes, most hobbiests only need to rely on two different classifications.....Spearers or Smashers. Being even more practical, most hobbiests really only need to know about Smashers. Spearers are very efficient fish predators that live in burrows in the sand. As a result, it is HIGHLY UNLIKELY that you will accidentally get one with a shipment of Live Rock. They fold their raptorial appendage (or dactlys) under their main body like a praying mantis. Their dactyls have a spear tip with additional barbs or spines. Once they spear into the side of a fish, the barbs prevent the fish from getting off of the spear.
Here is a video of a spearer capturing a fish Here is a video of a spearer walking into it's burrow and then capturing a fish
Smashers (AKA thumbsplitters) are what hobbiests are most familiar with. Their dactyls are also held under the body like a praying mantis. However, in most smasher species, the clubs are larger, lack barbs or spines, and are very strong. They are typically called clubs. Smashers prey
primarily consists of animals that live in shells (snails, hermit crabs, clams, and mollusks) or have an exoskeleton (shrimp, crabs). The mantis need a way to break the shells or exoskeleton and they use their clubs to do it. This is the common 'clicking sound' that you read about on the reefing boards. Additionally, they will make dens in live rock by using their clubs to breaking off pieces. Obviously, this also makes the 'clicking sound'.
Here's a slow motion video showing the strike on a snail. (Note that this video was slowed down by a factor of 883 because Mantis Shrimp have one of the fastest movements in the animal kingdom).
Here's a video that is safe for squeamish readers....however, high-speed Internet access is recommended (Note that there are 3 hermit crabs in the tank all hiding on the same coral at the very top of the tank).
Here's another safe video of someone feeding a very small N. wennerae fish food with forceps
Here's a peacock mantis hunting a shrimp
Here's a video of a hermit crab that made a mistake by leaving it's shell to try to escape
I would be doing a poor job if I didn't include links to some very good resources. Dr. Roy Caldwell is one of the premier marine biologists studying stomatopods. He put together an identification page on
Common Aquarium Stomatopods. Additionally,
The Lurker's Guide to Stomatopods has a lot of good information.
What this means is that after each section, I will put up a post indicating that the topic is finished. Please hold questions until after each section is completed.
