Mantis’d

I did the rounds with Atomikk today. Occasionally, we’ll split a coral or two. It’s a great way to save some money, back up your corals and increase your collection.

Today’s purchase was a cyphastrea with a purple base and green polyps. A nice but pricey score.

We took the coral back to Atomikk’s place to frag it. While I snapped some pics of his tank, he used his Dremmel to give me a chunk. When he was done, he looked at the plastic the coral had been sitting on, there was a little bubble of water with something alive in it.

“I think it’s some kind of worm”, he said.

I looked closer, it had legs. It was no worm. It thrashed around in the small puddle. “Um, I think it’s a mantis shrimp.” I snapped a couple of pictures.

I brought it home. I left it in the plastic cup and I watched it for a few minutes. You could immediately see its personality. The cup was almost out of water, so I topped the cup a bit with tank water. It immediately went limp and floated on its back. I thought I had shocked and killed it, but kept watching. A minute later it was scurrying around the cup again; it had been playing dead.

I figure I won’t hear anything from it for 6 months, when I wonder where some clicking sound is coming from.