Got my N. Wennerae from TBS on Friday so I snapped a few pictures for you guys. Hopefully he keeps this mottled coloring but we'll see what happens.







Here's the tank:

I am gonna re-post your pics without links, I am annoying like that.





Nice mantis by the way, I am very jealous.

Hah WTF Jacob! Way to be annoying... jk. Thanks, he's a very social little guy. I fed him a shore crab yesterday so that was enjoyable to watch. He popped off almost all his legs and then dragged him into the cave and tore it up. Good times!

cool, I think I am going to set up a simple little tank for one, I have seen videos of them killing crabs, one word EPIC.

Edit: Spelling

My mantis, sick and dangerous
yo mantis, quick and painless

Dont get your hopes up on it keeping that coloring. His first molt, I all most gurantee you its going to turn all red. 2 molts later, green.

Unless its like mine. It went from mottled, to red, to pink. D'oh.

My mantis the size of a pumpkin
Your mantis look like Macaulay Culkin

Eat it

So no molt yet unfortunately but I did to make a new tank for him since the other once started leaking where it was drilled. It comes complete with a cheato lounge and a mangrove look.

I also made the light fixture out of an old tackle box that houses a grow bulb for the mangroves.





Hope you like the full size images Jacob.

I do haha. Just remember mangroves use a lot of magnesium.

is he doing any better btw?
or is he still drunkenly wondering around

Same old really. He eats well and has been doing a lot more spelunking so maybe the little sh!t will molt soon.

Nice. Much more handsome than Jotham. About how big is he right now?

gfy

Jotham is still cute.

Ha thanks, I know. I'd say he's just about 2 inches right now.



Hahahaha

I forgot to post these up here too:

Those are cute pics. Is he relatively friendly?

Wow! Gotta love these bad boys! Good job!

dam that thing looks like it could wreck some peeps.. you should put some little crabs in there and watch it go crazy!!

I have the same species! came as a hitchkiker on my LR!, I actually have a stone crab, damsel, snails, and many urchins with him that seem to be doing fine, Ive had mine for a long time now, and he still has that mottled coloring and orange antennae. =)

Looks nice. As a general rule for N. wennerae, brighter lights tend to make them a bright lime green color while dimmer lights will make them more maroon. I guess the mottled look is somewhere in between. Hope this helps.

yep- I keep an n. wennerae in a community reef tank with crabs, snails, and fish, and I've had no problems.

Cute pics! If you're going to keep a mantis, that's def. the kind to have.

I had a tank move so Rube has a sweet new home complete with rock wall lined with PVC tunnels.

















Check here for the whole tank setup! I'm very pleased with all of it.

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=216840

im still disappointed he turned just green

What might be a good inbetween light???, the mottled look is so awesome, lime green is pretty neat, but the maroon(what mine is) reminds me of a roach .

Me too, maybe the new bulb will give him different color.



What kind of lighting is your under?

Before I switched the tank over, which was the last time he molted, I had him under a 55w grow bulb. It was mostly for the mangroves. Now he's under a 20w grow bulb, both are the same spectrum but this is less intense so maybe there will be a color change. I have no idea how to get that mottled look back, thats just how he came.

Just the cheap incandescent bulbs that come built into the hood so prolly the lower end of the lower spectrum hehe. I've had mine about 1 an a half months so I can't tell if he molted yet since I never seen the shell, but if he did he stayed the same color. I'm trying to see what 50/50 bulbs will fit this hood, but I am definately interested to see what possible color outcome might come from your switch.

I thought this was a cool thing to get on camera. His strategy was to pop both front claws off, heres a pic after the first one was punched off:



After the second one was off, he whacked him a bunch more times I suppose to stun him and then he just picked him up and walked him to the burrow for the feast. Pretty crazy since the crab is, well was, about the size of him.

Uhh, yea no thanks, might want to try the classifieds...

I'm trying to sell a ap24 myself.

Scott you are a ninja mod....

And the video was awesome I wish i still had a mantis... one day maybe.. one day..

Haha nice, serious ninja skills.



Thanks, what happened to your mantis? Get another! You won't...

Awesome. Brian's little girl that I'm watching doesn't like to kill crabs. She just sits there and stares at me all the time (creeper).

Haha well thats cool too, creepy yes, but cool. I honestly can't imagine something that small killing a crab.

He just brought me a whole mess of crabs. Enough food to last a couple months. That is if they don't kill each other by then.

Yeah, she's cool. I'll be sad when Brian takes her...but don't tell him that.

Is it those asian shore crabs he talks about?

That would be them. They're absolutely everywhere and they don't die, unless fed to mantis.

My friend was taking care of it during a move and it died unexplainable under his care. I got mine for free so that means Id have to pay to get another one that wont even be as cool.

That sucks, get another anyway! Soooo you have to pay for it, it will be worth it! And who know, it might even be cooler than the last...not to crap on his memory or anything I'm just saying, they are always cool.

Sweet Video!

That crab got housed!

Haha I know, it never gets old.

Ok I now have 40w 50/50 light in his 10gal, will let ya know if he changes, would be cool to know the exact amount of light needed to control the color of the molt. Sweet video too!

I think my N. wennerae is the complete opposite. He went from red to green and I have no light on his tank. He just molted for the first time

Haha really? That goes against everything I have every heard about them. Mine is still bright green and has molted since I did the light change... We'll see what happens next time

How many weeks should there be between each molt and does anyone know the reason they change colors ? Perhaps it is not the lighting and it is more a camoflage for the environment? I believe the reason when you bought your speciman it was mottled because it came from an area with many colors of corals and after it molted in your tank the color it molted into wasthe most suitable for it's environments camoflage. Another theory is almost the same except instead of the environment difference it is from the multiple wavelengths of light coming from the full spectrum of the sun.

I miss my N.Wennerae. Molts depend on the mantis. Some are every few weeks a some are monthly. Mine didn't molt for the 1st 6 months I had him. They change their colors during a molt based on the tight spectrum. Say if it was red, the mantis came from deeper water were the redder side of the spectrum is more prominent. Then you change their lighting so its a broader spectrum that we use to grow corals they will be greener to blend in.

this is interesting... My O. Scyllaris is currently olive green (more like puke green) but if i changed the bulbs all to actinic blue (right now theyre 10k) what color could he theoretically molt to?