bump........ anybody have a suggestion

I've got a suggestion but I'm not Travis. Anyway, I would go for a N. wennerae. They are common, quite active will change colors to fit their surroundings. I love mine, he's always out and about, comical also. Today he kept smacking the screen divider trying to get at a snail that was on the other side. He finally gave up and went for one on his side instead. Little moments like that just make you smile....

N. wennerae is your best bet as far as activity and availability are concerned; however, G. smithi would also be an exceptional choice as well. In general, it always seems best to recommend N. wennerae because they are active and so easily available from tampabaysaltwater and sealifeinc. HTH.

ROFL LOL

We thought we would add a pic of our Mantis. We keep him in a 29 gallon. We feed him a red claw crab once a week and give him some krill once a week. He has been such a joy to watch. We got him about 8 months ago and couldn't be happier. We have really enjoyed reading this post.

He is about 3 fingers thick and about 4 1/2 to 6 inches long. If anyone wants to come over and get a exact measurement be my guest.

^ Drop dead gorgeous stupid coral, I want one o' dem ^! lol, jk, but that's an incredible pic

Saw an all yellow spearing mantis, not sure exact species? ANYONE?


i plan to purchase him cause I really love to set up a mantis tank

THATS AMAZING

agreed
they give me nightmares

Pseudosquilla ciliata, I have one. Great to watch hunt down shrimp.

He's gorgeous. What kind is that?

Hilarious video of a mantis. Any of you guys tried this?

Wow, that is interesting to say the least. I'm not really sure about the ethics behind something like that, but it was....interesting...

Hehe... I wouldnt' think it would be any more unethical than dragging a string on the floor for my cats to chase. But maybe that's just me... I was definitely interesting, though.

BTW, does anyone have the ID on that mantis?

I got my rock from TBS and the clicking is driving me crazy. I get my CUC monday or tuesday with the rest of my rock. I also ended up with about 6 gorilla crabs. I got the big one and 2 small ones but they are so shy its difficult to get em. I'd love to have the mantis kill the gorrillas but not sure if it will happen. Ive had the rock in the tank and it is cycled but I cannot pin down where this or these mantis shrimp are. considering making a 20oz bottle trap but have had mixed feedback on the success this brings. My fear is its gonna go through my CUC in no time. Id love to be able to keep him or them but I cant afford to go buy 34 blue hermits the snails and such ever few months. And my biggest fear is that he may burrow into the sand and break the glass. I work nights so sitting around with a flashlight is impossible.


I also got a purple sea urchin about the size of a golf ball. I have alot of live barnacles on my rock and heard they eat em. Do I move my urchin to my 14g biocube since there are no barnacles in there? do they eat corraline? what do i have to worry about with the urchin if anyone has experience keeping them.

The upside is I got 7 cowries 4 various sized porcelain crab and a load of other "good hitchhikers" but theres the problem again I dont want em all dead because of a mantis.

I do wish I could keep the mantis they are fascinating but im scared to not get em out of there. I hope they show up soon i have no idea which rock or rocks the clicking is coming from.

Odds are extremely small that the mantis will break the glass- the mantis would have to be HUGE and the glass thin. There are very few cases of mantids breaking glass tanks because they were kept in tanks that were too small and thus had thin glass. This part I would not worry about.

If it is a mantis, could also be a pistol shrimp, doesn't mean that it will destroy everything. You really just have to decide if you want to keep him or not. If you put some shrimp on the end of a skewer you can bait him out to see where he's hiding. If you are really that worried about the CUC, don't buy the CUC until you get rid of the mantis. Even then, if you keep him will fed with shrimp, he won't just go around killing everything. HTH.

That's a G. platysoma.

My Ciliata



Our Peacock

That second pic with the snail is awesome! You should photoshop the snail shell into a pic of the earth with the mantis gazing toward the camera.

wow, that is an awesome angle

Hey i got a mantis on my sealifinc. rock. As i was unwrapping it from newspaper,it was sitting right there. I thought it was dead, but when i poked it it was alive. So i threw it in the tank, and he laid there moving his frills under his body a bit. He went off into the rock, and perked up a bit. It is a small brown with other cool colors spearer. Do you think it will survive the cycle? Also, i was planning on getting rid of it later.

Give it to a lfs or sell it. Don't allow it to suffer through a cycle. People will buy it from you.

I am perplexed, can someone with experience keeping peacock mantis chime in please?

I had a 20long setup for about 2 months (cycle finished under 1 month). I had about 40lbs live sand and about 20-25 lr rubble.

Also had a vareity of macro algae in tank. Anyway I finally added a peacock mantis about two weeks ago.
He has been eating great and really active. Last night he finally attacked a large turbo snail that had been in the tank with him for the past two weeks. He never bothered before. He was hammering all night on this snail to at least 2am (which is when I fell asleep). When I get up at 7 am to go to work I go in and my peacock is dead. He was laying out in the open on his back?? I don't understand what happened.

All my levels were in check (Ammonia 0, Nitrite O, even Nitrates were undetectable using salifert test kits).

So basically between being very active at 2 am (hammering away at snail) and and 7 am he suddenly died, just doesn't make sense to me. No chemicals or anything have been around the tank, not in room either.

I read that most peacocks die when they molt, but he hadn't showed any signs of molting.

Can they die because of overfeeding?

Thanks

Mantids are incredibly hardy but I wouldn't intentionally put them through a cycle. If you plan to get rid of him, I'd find someone who could take him from you before the cycle.


This sounds odd. Are there any other possible predators in the tank? You said that there were absolutely no signs of molting. Were there any signs of shell disease? What have you been feeding it? Mantids are sensitive to aerosols and other chemicals- did you spray anything in the room that the tank is in?

I found a post on stomatopod.com forums in which a guys description fits the description I described above.
Anyone else ever have this happen?

http://www.stomatopod.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=258

I figured out what mine is!
He is a Neogonodactylus wennerae and he hitchhiked from my sea life inc. live rock. When i found him barely alive on the newspaper, he was brown. Now that he actually came out from the live rock, i can see that he has nice colors with little dots. His little gill things underneath are blue. He has great personality and is very active.




he has a weird habit of curling around in a ball

hi, new here! I just started a 10g salt water mantis shrimp aquarium. I have had a 30g freshwater for a while and always thought these guys were cool so i finally got one. Ive had him for a couple days and he seems quite friendly but i have not once heard any popping sounds. I know for sure that he is a smasher, I do trust the local fish place. Not quite sure how to place the live rock either, and i have seen others use pvc pipe as a hideout for theirs. Any info would be great!

ps, mine curls up like a ball quite often too. he looks so cute like that!

I WANT A MANTIS!!! I have had a tank set up and running now for well over 6 months now HELP!!!!

yeah they are really cool critters! They are kind of cute.

btw to nanoreef! you should make a tank thread

Haha ill try, the tank is just beginning right now. I actually moved the rocks around today and that seemed to scare him a little. I can see him peeking out from them with the piece of shrimp in his mouth just looking at me . He is kinda camera shy too so if i can ill snap some shots. The funny thing is when i first got him i wasnt sure what to feed him because he wasnt really going for the snails/crabs. I tossed a little bit of crab pellets in front of what he was using for a home at the time and the lil bugger ran up and pushed them right back at me. Sand and pellets went everywhere, he is the funniest little guy!

Help what?

Donate one? LOL

me get one for my tank I have setup for one hehe

What's that one site surfer? Stomatopod something. All I know is they have a very nice Mantis selection, giving you more options than Neondactylus Wennerae and Odondactylus...Sylarus?...other common mantis shrimp.

anyone ever purchased mantis from blue zoo aquatics online?

Thanks

My mantis only lived 12 hours! Must of been something wrong with my water. Very upset. I have let tank just be for the past 6 weeks and it was home to a Chocolate Chip Star. I plan to get another one but want to find the perfect mantis!

Sucked, he was so cool for the first 12 hours then just started to look like junk. I tested water and everything was fine, who knows

maybe he was sick to start off with? was there any other fish that died?

Ok so after work im going to the fish place to get some new water and live rock. Wanted something else to put in the tank with the mantis, any ideas?

Drcooper: This was a mantis you ordered from Blue Zoo Aquatics?

thx

Sorry, can't do that


It depends what kind you want but N. wennerae are very accessible.


http://www.stomatopod.com/

(It looks like they have a G. smitthi right now!!!)


I haven't heard of anyone who has.


It could be the acclimation, airborne chemicals, or he may have just had issues before you got him.


In general, things that are either fast moving or that can live undetected are your best bet. There aren't really any guarantees though.

I was thinking more along the line of stuff to put on the live rock. I put a damsel fish in there and it disappeared over night.

I'm surprised, damsels often do quite well with mantids unless your mantis is a spearer, the damsel still had some acclimation sickness, or you were just unlucky. As far as the rock, any kind of corals or whatever should be fine. The one issue you might find is that the mantis will knock the rock around and unintentionally mess up the coral. If you glue down the rock, the corals should be fine. I have had a mantis burrow through a rock and invariably through an anemone on the other side though. Does that help?

Got it from LFS
i called them and they are like "it was doing great here for a while, sorry"

Yea that helps. My mantis is very shy during the day but as soon as the lights go out and im asleep it will hunt down and eat everything in the tank. It hasnt done much as far as rock burrowing, although it did knock a small piece of LR off on the left. It mainly just moves sand around to block holes in its little cave i made for it. Ill try that coral trick when i pick some up next time, thanks

ps, Yes i know it is a smasher b/c yesterday it ran out and smacked a snail that was on the acrylic. It was so loud i jumped lol. Snail was fine though

Wow, that really sucks


Just out of curiosity, how strong are the lights? Sometimes mantids won't come out as much during the day if the lights are too strong. Other species are just primarily nocturnal though.

This is the type of light in there now:
Lightning Rod
Ultimate Reef
14watt T6 15"

I tried to get a pic of him but hes too fast for my crappy point and shoot! The fish place tagged him as a peacock mantis but he is semi dark green and doesnt look like the normal peacock mantis shrimp. Ill try to get a pic soon.

That shouldn't be too bright at all. Pics could definitely help with ID. You can also check here to help ID it yourself.

Finally got a pic of him peekin out!

Click to view attachment

Can you keep a Mantis in a JBJ Picotope?

Looks nice but I am definitely not good enough to guess an id from a pic like that. Do you know where you got him?


There are a few extremely small species that are doable on the long term and I have heard of a few people keeping mantids in smaller tanks like the Picotope for periods of time, but, in general, I wouldn't recommend it.

Got him from here: http://king-aquarium.com/

They had him and a smaller one. Advertised as a Peacock Mantis

Ok got a vid of him:

http://s51.photobucket.com/albums/f399/gog...nt=DSCN1591.flv