Id Please

[rictheredneck]

had this in my girlfriends tank for a long time now. never seen it during day light hours well in fact never seen it at all except for a couple of eyes poking out of a hole. it chose to live in a rock covered in mushroom polyps. im 98% sure its a mantis shrimp but id prefer it to be confirmed never seen on for sale anywhere so im just goin of fotos ive seen of them.

its about an inch long...

rock full of shrooms where it lived. got it out with the old sparkling water trick.

this is her mushroom it has started to look very withered and i have circled a hole that has appeared at its base. thinking that something has burrowed in and started to snack i went on the hunt for the critter. is this usual behavior for a mantis or do i have to be on the look out for mushroom eater?!?

 

[SkiFletch]

Pseudosquilla cilliata almoast for sure. One of the more common Mantids. They stay pretty small and are often nocturnal especially in an active reef. They are burrowers and although they dont eat corals, any corals that get in their way when making their home is discarded, cut, moved, or whatever to make the home the way the mantis wants it. Relatively harmless to fish at that size, although smaller snails/crabs should probably beware