Mantis...How intelligent do they get?
 

I have a mantis shrimp in my tank which I rescued from a piece of liverock about 8 months ago. It was the size of a large amphipod when I got it, and it's now 2 1/2". She's quite intelligent. I trained her to come to pick the food from the pipette, and she pick a few mysis from it and run back into her cave.

For the last few days she was not coming, and I did not see her at all. So today I put some mysis shrimps in front of her cave and the current took them inside the liverock cave. I was waiting to see if she would come out but she did not and I thougth she might be dead, but suddendly she came out of there with a mysis and threw it back at me. She went back inside the cave and got another mysis and threw it at me and she did that for the 3 mysis I had put there, one by one.

My gues is that she's molting so she does not want to eat but rather then letting those mysis rot inside the liverock cracks, she returned them to me. I picked them up with the pipette and she went back inside her cave.

I was quite impressed that she did not simply let those inside to rot there. She also have many entrances to her large cave so she could have pitched the mysis out through other openings but each time she returned to the front door and pitched the mysis in my direction. It was really cute :)

I thought that was quite intelligent of her :)

Have you had a mantis do something intelligent? if so, what was it? I would love to hear your mantis story!

They are really smart. I even taught my peacock mantis how to flush the toilet

Ha. Haha. Can't stop giggling. Hehe hahahahahaha HAAA!! I don't think the creator of this thread is as amused as I am.

+1 :)

they don't get smart, they have some neat quirks about them but as far as intelligence there a bug. :mrgreen: I had my two for 4 years, more interactive than a fish but nothing I would call intelligence.

Steve

I dunno, mine stuck his head in the return pump, that was pretty smart...

Awww it was checking the impeller for you!

if he got himself out of the return pump and survived, I'd say he was pretty smart. lol

He wasn't that smart, unfortunately...

Really? I read a few times they were intelligent. Sure is not the same as a dog of course but I thought they were more intelligent than a bug.

Another thing that surprise me is that it recognize me and only come out when it is me. I tried to give the pipette to my boyfriend to feed it a couple of times but it would not come out for him. Then I would take the pipette and he would need to back off and the mantis would come out and pick the food from the pipette. Not sure why but it does not seem to trust other people.

Sure show the level of intelligence of certain people though :)

Acting dumb, looking dumb, being dumb....but I am more interested in mantis!

Haha don't listen to these guys here's the real proof:p I think after this he did Sundays crossword puzzle;)

http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&source...FUBhkEpEZpgVJw

In ink even!

:lol: OMG! Fricken hilarious. Sorry!!! But it made me laugh too! :wink: :redface:

They do have the most sophisticated colour vision of any animal on earth by a full order of magnitude. I wouldn't be surprised if they could tell the difference between individual people and get habituated to the one that always feeds them, but I would call that conditioning more than I would call it intelligence.

they have the best eyesight of any living creature. Also, they are the fastest animal ( striking speed that is ). The speed of a mantis's strike has been equated to the speed of a 22 caliber bullet.
My peacock mantis was pretty smart. He died about 4 mos ago. Don't know why, maybe old age. He was about 8 inches long, 2 inches wide. I had him for about 2 years, and Roger from Roger's aquatics had him for a couple of years before me.

Very cute story about your mantis, thanks for sharing. I am always fascinated and enjoy reading about any kind of intelligent animal. I think they are all smarter than we thought.

So I get that they can live quite long, 4 years and more and have a wide range of adult size.

I wonder where one could buy a mantis because I never seen them sold in any stores I know in my area. Did you buy yours locally or ordered it via the Internet?

actualy there are a few myths there. they don't have the best eye sight but rather a unique eye structure that lets then see more colors than any other creature (that we know of)

as for the striking speed yes it is the fastest motion of any animal, but no where near the speed of a 22. what was commenly said was the force of a 12"+ mantis strike could be comparable to the force of a 22, not the speed.

Do I like them yup they are entertaining, and neat, they used to be quite common 10 years ago in the hobby, but like any other fad you don't see them much any more.

(for the person wanting to know where to get them)
normaly unless you special order one you will only get them as hitchhickers in live rock orders. I got six in my 50lb order about 12 years ago, two didn't make it I gave two away and I kept two.

Steve

How long did they live?

I saw a beautiful peacock mantis at J&L Aquatics just a few weeks ago, they often have them. My boyfriend used to have one, it was set up on the night stand beside our bed.. and was so very cool, he would come out of his cave to grab the shrimp off the feeding stick, but if he didn't see the stick, he would quickly go back in his hide. The way he interacted with us (and he certainly recognized us from other people) really gave the impression of intelligence, whether it be our own human perception of that I don't know, but regardless very enjoyable to own! It did kind of creep me out at certain private 'moments' to feel eyes on you, only to look over and see those beedy eyes watching you with interest! We started calling him Merv the perv! Lol!

well two were dead when I opened my rock box, the two I gave away who knows. my other two one lived 4 years and the other one went to some one else.. can't remember who at this point so i don't know. they could have been old when they came across on the rock or they could have been young I don't know. at least 4 years for the two I had.

one I had was a little brownish one about 2" long. the other one was a nice green and was 4" long.

Steve

cool, what hapened to yours?

Also was it a spearer or a smasher?

Do you know how much JL Aquatics was charging for it and how big was it?

I don't know about JL but every now and then they show up in local stores for $20-$50 depending on size and color. I'm not sure if the stores actually received them in an order or were just found as hitchhikers.

Sorry it took so long to reply, I'm still learning my way around on the site and couldn't fund this thread again!
Mine lived the whole time I was living with my boyfriend, just over a year, and as it was his, he took it with him when we parted ways and he moved out.
As for the one at J&L's, it was full grown, but I didn't enquire about the price as I wasn't looking to purchase it.
I'm interested to hear if you get one! :)