mantis shrimp?

[Marinemom]

hi, my name is marinemom and i apologize for not making any posts before but i am new to the hobby. I found something in my tank and i suspect it's a mantis shrimp but am not sure and need the opionion of an experienced marine reef keeper. I have lost several green chromis and never find their bodies. Below is the picture my son took of it.

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j258/Velo_storage/P4151996.jpg


If somone could please identify this for me i would appreciate it. maybe i won't have any more dissapearing fish. :eek: thanks for all your help.
This is my first post.


Regards,

Marinemom

[bjonesjr1]

That would be a hermit crab.

[bertoni]

[welcome]

Yep.

[kingtoad]

No. :)

That's a hermit crab.

This is a mantris shrimp.
http://www.softfrag.50g.com/_framed/50g/softfrag/20/july2000/mantispose.jpg

[Marinemom]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7182847#post7182847 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by bertoni
<img src="/images/welcome.gif" width="500" height="62"><br><b><i><big><big>To Reef Central</b></i></big></big>

Yep.

Can you please be more descriptive than "yep"? i'm not sure what you're saying yep to.

Thanks

Marine Mom

[kingtoad]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7182856#post7182856 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Marinemom
Can you please be more descriptive than "yep"? i'm not sure what you're saying yep to.

Thanks

Marine Mom
No. :) Shrimp don't have shells, at least not any I know if. If it has a shell it's either a crab or snail, and by the looks of it, I'm sure it's a hermit crab.

[vessxpress1]

That's 110% hermit crab. Just about everybody here has hundreds of them and they're harmless. Except they will kill a snail to take it's shell if new shells aren't provided for them as they grow. They will eat dead things and other bad stuff in the tank. My largest one grabbed one of my wounded peppermint shrimp and started eating the meat out of it like he had a lobster tail. They are pretty harmless though. You probably wouldn't have to ask if you had a real mantis shrimp.

[Marinemom]

Thanks for your quick reply. In my experience some shrimp do have shells. I am debating with myself wether to put it back into my tank or not and don't want to until i am absolutely positive that it is not a predator.

I appreciate your time,

MarineMom

[vessxpress1]

It appears to be a very common blue legged hermit crab. I have a 38 gal. and I have about 50 of these guys in it, about 20 red legged ones, about 20 tri-colors (white and brown basically) and a handful of scarlets. The scarlets are the coolest looking ones. They're a bright red color but not as active and tend to stay away from eachother. The blue ones interact a lot more and fight sometimes. They're great to have for a clean up crew. They eat whatever fish food falls in the cracks and they'll clean up algae.

They are harmless and are basically afraid of everything. Some fish will eat them. I was walking by my tank one day and somehow my six line wrasse had grabbed a large tri-color and was swimming away with it. It might have been in the process of changing shells. I hit at the glass to try to scare him and he dropped it. Don't know if the crab made it though. I put a lot more crabs in there than I have now.

Most people will tell you if you buy a bunch and throw them all in, they're numbers will eventually thin down to whatever the tank can support and basically the stronger, more intelligent ones survive.
One other thing is, is they molt like snakes, shrimp, etc.. So if you look in there and you think one died, it's probably just the skin left from one molting. The shed looks just like a regular one.

[mvandepeer]

I too have had some chromis and two have just disapeared but if there are any bristle worms and the chromis dies the worm will quickly take care of your carcass for you along with the hermits...

I have no explanation of why a few fish have disapeared but each time there is nothing left and no cause for death.

From what I have read about mantis shrimp, I fully agree with VESSXPRESS1... "You probably wouldn't have to ask if you had a real mantis shrimp"

[Marinemom]

Thanks for the quick replies. At least I can be sure that this is nothing to worry about. I still am baffled about the dissappearing green chromis. This tank has been up and running since Dec.27,2005. I can tell you that no other fish seem to dissappear without a trace. I have ten years experience with freshwater aquariums but this is my first attempt at a saltwater reef aquarium. If anyone has any clues on the chromis problem,please let me know what to do. I really think that a school of these fish is so beautiful in my 60 gallon reef tank. I always end up with just one green chromis.

Thanks for all of your time and experience.

Marinemom

[iCam]

Did you ever notice any aggression between the chromis? Also, have you checked your water parameters?

[Marinemom]

As a matter of fact, yes there has been some aggression among the chromis but it is my understanding that this is a schooling fish.Why would the one chromis want to get rid of his school? Does he want to be king of the tank? Fat chance with a Tang in the tank. I have checked the water perimeters and it is fine.



Ammonia-0
Nitrite-0
Nitrate-0
SG-1022-1023



Thanks again,
Marinemom

[iCam]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7183250#post7183250 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Marinemom
As a matter of fact, yes there has been some aggression among the chromis but it is my understanding that this is a schooling fish.Why would the one chromis want to get rid of his school? Does he want to be king of the tank? Fat chance with a Tang in the tank. I have checked the water perimeters and it is fine.

They are a schooling fish, but even then if they are kept in certain numbers, or you have a certain sex combination, there will be some fighting for dominance.

It's highly possible that the surviving chromis kill the others, or stressed them out enough that they died.

[vessxpress1]

I've never had a green chromis, but I know what they are and I have read about them and have seen a school of them in the 200 gal. tank at the LFS. I can see why you would like to keep a school of them.

Unfortunately, i don't remember if I read it on here or somewhere else but I guess typically within a school of green chromis, the weakest fish will get picked on by the others until it dies. Once it dies, then the next weakest one is picked on and so on until you only have one left. I have no idea why this happens but my best guess is the confinements of an aquarium may cause this and possibly the larger the tank, the less this would happen? Just a guess though.

When a fish is dying, they have a tendecny to disappear into crevices in rocks that you would never think a fish could get in. One time I had about a 3"+ coral beauty angel (a taller, wider fish) that quit eating for no reason and then dissappeared. I knew it died so I tore the whole tank apart looking for it. Couldn't find it. Put everything back together. Then I got mad again because I couldn't find it. Ripped the tank apart again (thank God it wasn't a reef tank at this point) and turned all the rocks all around looking and I finally found it.
There was a tiny cave inside one of my large rocks that the thing had squeezed into and I almost couldn't get it out of there. It took a lot of force to get it out. I'm still suprised I found it because you could barely see it.
After that, I wasn't suprised at how a fish can disapper. I've even had a couple dissappear out onto the floor behind the tank, that jumped out during the night. Make sure to check all around the tank if there's any open spots.

[Snowboarder2757]

From what I have read about chromis', is that you should buy an ODD amount if you want a school of them. That tends to help them form their rank amongst each other. And they do sometimes pick on one another. I agree with iCam. Hope this helps

[kingtoad]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7182994#post7182994 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Marinemom
Thanks for your quick reply. In my experience some shrimp do have shells. I am debating with myself wether to put it back into my tank or not and don't want to until i am absolutely positive that it is not a predator.

I appreciate your time,

MarineMom
FYI crabs are predatory by nature.

[Amphiprion]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7183756#post7183756 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Snowboarder2757
From what I have read about chromis', is that you should buy an ODD amount if you want a school of them. That tends to help them form their rank amongst each other. And they do sometimes pick on one another. I agree with iCam. Hope this helps
Unfortunately, this makes no real difference. What does matter is that these fish are in sufficient numbers as well as a sufficient volume to accomodate such behaviors. I can assure you that three will cooperate just as poorly as four individuals.

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7184909#post7184909 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by kingtoad
FYI crabs are predatory by nature.
NOt entirely true. Actually, most crabs are quite opportunistic by nature.

Marinemom--Look up Clibanarius tricolor in a google search. That should turn up quite a few images for this hermit crab.