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The Mantis Shrimp Guide Thread


travisurfer

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travisurfer
YAY mine molted yesterday. i managed to snag a piece of his exo he's definately purple/blue with yellow legs, i've narrowed it down i believe he's either a bredini, wennerae or chiragra.

Based on your descriptions it almost seems like a bredini to me but it's hard to say. Do you know what area it came from? I haven't seen any wennerae that are purple before and not with that varied of a two-tone as you are describing. In general though, you are going to want to leave the majority of the skeleton in there so the mantis can eat it to help replenish the nutrients it needs to build a new shell.

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travisurfer,

I just wanted to give you big props for working your way to becoming the N-R Mantis Expert! Just reading about these incredible creatures is inspiring me to finish off stocking my nanowave 9 with a smaller species. I'm still hunting around for the wennerae or smithii I desire, and hope I am able to become as knowledgable as you are about stomatopods! :)

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spawntilludie

my female g tern was a freebee. very cool mantis, enjoy my mantis/frag tank more than the aio. my mantis def knows who i am and will behave if she sees me.

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travisurfer

Not that I don't appreciate the comments, but this thread was more so made as an FAQ and whatnot for noobs. Check out The Mantis Tank Thread for general mantis shenanigans.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I just ordered my first Peacock today and can't wait for it to arrive at my LFS (in about a week)!! I set up my tank specifically for it

Edited by bheld
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www.stomatopod.com has some new Peacocks and others in stock. Just thought I'd throw that in there for those that don't know where to pick one up.

 

does anyone have a prediction as to what will happen if I add an arrow crab to my Carib tank? Is he toast with the mantis in there?

 

I have a Peacock with an Arrow Crab. He doesn't bother it. Mine prefers emerald crabs and any type of snail. I'm sure he would whack the Arrow Crab if he got hungry enough. Also, I think the behavior varies from one mantis to the next.

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  • 1 month later...

Yes, behavior is largely based on each individual mantis. With that said, I wouldn't want to keep a mantis with something I'd be disappointed to lose.

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heres a new pic i took today of my little buddy. he's about 2" 1/2" long

 

DSCN0156.jpg

Awesome photo, color wise he looks like a carolina preying mantis!

I should have loads to choose from by the end of the month!

 

I've heard they do rearranging, specifically corals or substrate, or a little bit of both? from the threads I've read they like to dig, but if offered shell fragments would they be less inclined to bother corals? my substrate actually has lots of broken shells in it already. I'm asking because i like to be daring and putting one in a prop tank sounds daring to me right now.

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Cool thread. I recently (last week) saw two funny eyes peering out of a piece of liverock during a feeding session. I took the rock out an broke it (I had mushrooms on it) and placed the piece with the little critter in a small 1/2 gallon betta tank (with established sand and water from my 12g). Guess what it was? Yup, a little mantis, maybe 1" at the most. He hasn't come out of the rock much, but half the body does come out to see what's going on. I've fed it with a toothpick and it eats (doesn't like the toothpick much and snaps at it) but I haven't been able to see it fully out. Do you think I have a chance of keeping it and if so, do they grow fast? I have an empty 20g, but I won't set-up because this thing is still too tiny. If I can get a good pic, I'll post it, in the meantime I'll keep reading.

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i'm pretty sure he's from fiji, thats where the live rock he came in was from at my LFS. he doesn't ever dig in the sand, he has a hole in his rock and closes the door every night, he runs around and picks up small pebbles and carries them around but has never even knocked over one of my frags let alone redecorated my tank. he's a model citizen i've had him for nearly 4 months now and he's never killed anything. i feed him pieces of store shrimp and silversides every few days.

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yeah, just makes sure you have reasonable filtration, params stay normal and feed him right sized portion. I dont have a time table for you, but most owners say they grow quite fast.

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Nice mantids. Just looking back, I wouldn't put a mantis in a prop tank. It gets really annoying trying to move stuff around. The little mantis should be fine in the small tank as long as the water quality is adequate and he has some room to roam.

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