The Peacock Mantis Shrimp An Amazing Hunting Crustacean.

A year ago while browsing Youtube I came across a video about a weird looking creature hitting and cracking open an oyster. As the video progressed I became more and more amazed with this creature known as a mantis shrimp or stomatopods. Mantis shrimp are marine crustaceans that posses the most advanced eye sight in the whole world. With sixteen color-receptive cones, they are built to be amazing hunters. Aside from top notch eye sight, they also posses an amazing club like arm spear that they use to strike and bash any threat or potential prey they may encounter. Oysters, crabs, mollusks, and octupi are the most common meals for mantis shrimp which they achieve by bashing and dismembering its prey. Yes, this crustacean is a real hunter! Aside from that, they are also very very aggressive and are to be kept in an aquarium tank of their own. The first month after I purchased a mantis shrimp of my own I lost four medium sized three stripped damsels not knowing what keeping the consequences. Therefore one mantis shrimp per aquarium is a must!

Here is a quick video of one of my mantis shrimps feeding on a huge hermit crab. I currently own two Peacock Mantis Shrimp which are the most aggressive type of stamatopods. I also own a Zebra Mantis Shrimp, which is a spearing type of mantis shrimp which has barb like arms witch it uses to spear its swimming prey which also includes fish. Do note that I have them in separate tanks which is really a must! Being carnivore, meaty foods are a must. I feed my mantis shrimp a combination of frozen foods with the occasional  live prey as in the video. However be aware it does get a bit expensive and tends to get quite messy when feeding live foods. This is why shopping around and looking for the best bargains is always important. Housing a mantis shrimp requires a lot of attention and the right filtration system, lighting system and a UV-Sterilizer also helps with the care of these magnificent creatures. The setup in the video has a Fluval 405 filter along with a 

Aqua Ultraviolet Advantage Series Sterilizer which so far has been doing a great job in controlling odor and my water conditions. If you're like me, you'll want the best for your aquarium as buying cheap priced equipment tends to go bad quick or sometimes does not do the job correctly. Again, shop around and ask questions before buying equipment as different species of marine life require different water conditions.