Mantis acting weird

[Rollermonkey]

WOW.

 

Those videos are awesome.

 

Thank you for posting them!

[Islandoftiki]

If you own a mantis and haven't been seeking out every possible mantis video on YouTube, you're doing it wrong...

[Rollermonkey]

I don't own a mantis. I'm living vicariously through yours, Tiki.

[hayseed777]

Selcon-soaked raw shrimp pieces and a varied diet (a live fiddler crab or two per week) seemed to help my G. Smithii. The way you describe her acting "drunk" makes me think there may not be enough oxygen in the water. Is there sufficient surface agitation, do you have a lid on the tank?

[Based]

Selcon-soaked raw shrimp pieces and a varied diet (a live fiddler crab or two per week) seemed to help my G. Smithii. The way you describe her acting "drunk" makes me think there may not be enough oxygen in the water. Is there sufficient surface agitation, do you have a lid on the tank?

Tank is fully open, no top at all

 

she accepted food last night, still no molt, and still acting the same way

 

A mantis smacking you with the smasher end of the dactyl would suck, but getting stabbed with the needle sharp end would suck way worse!

 

Sheila Patek explains what it's like to get hit by a mantis:

 

 

Here's a little more from Sheila about the the mantis dactyl:

 

 

And just because I find Sheila's info on mantis so much fun, here's her talking about mantis at the TED talks:

 

Well never knew they had those needles in their smashers, feeding with tongs for now on

[Based]

Sent Dr. Roy Caldwell a message on reef central explaining what has been going on. Hopefully he maybe able to tell me whats wrong with her.

[Based]

This is how she usually in half the day but she's In a diff spot everytime I see her, also redid the scape and just turned the lights off she's climbing the rocks, she is still very scared of the littlest things

[peasofme]

to me it sounds like she doesn't feel secure. she needs a secure home. dr caldwell often talks about one needing the right home. thats why he often uses pvc a little bigger than the mantis as a home. you probably want to find exactly what he said about it though. i can't remember it exactly.

 

found this post which has the exact details:

 

http://www.livingreefs.com/mantis-shrimp-t45825.html

 

2. PVC are a mantis shrimps best friend! Out of all the mantis shrimps I've ever had, 3/4 of them have always chose a PVC pipe as their home. Get some of the curvy ones any place them through rock work, or get a long branching one and smush it into the sand so its in place. Roy Caldwell(Pretty much mantis shrimp expert of the world lol) recommends that their pipe be 3x their length, and 1.5x their width.

 

http://www.blueboard.com/mantis/care/shell_disease.htm

 

A deep, dark burrow (black or grey pvc pipe at least twice the length of the animal and just a little bigger in diameter is about right) also can help. A good diet is also important. If I have an animal that shows signs of shell disease, I usually start adding supplements such as "Selco" to its diet. This is one time that I recommend feeding the animal as much as it will eat. The more quickly it molts, the better the chance that it will get rid of the diseased tissue and recover. Just be careful to remove uneaten or buried food to maintain good water quality.

 

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1422670

 

i wonder if shell rot has something to do with algae.