Project: Mantis

hotimportknight

hotimportknight

New! Big Tank Club!
Today I was in Madison christmas shopping, came across a sweet fish store by a recommendation as we were leaving town, called AniMart, sweet store, cool employees, i was disappointed to find a small orange mantis shrimp for 40$... too much for a side project right now, the guys like you want one? how about 10, so my friend asked if he bought a feeder fish would he throw them in? the guy grabs some gold fish and tosses them in, one mantis came out and dominated the fish right away, the other just looked at the fish. Guess which one I picked? The killer... 10$ and a nice piece of tonga branch for the tank 6$ a lb for cured tanga, it was a 3 hour ride so i took some cured rocks from my DP into the little 5 gallon im using for a while. My question is, I had this tank running for like a month or 2 now with my water change water in it and half new water, just been topping it off with RO, nothing was in it at all. just heater and filter running waiting for substrate and rock. Will the mantis be ok with substrate stolen out of my DP and sump (a mix of a little each, its only a small tank to cover) and some rocks from my DP. Do you think it will show a spike? right now every thing tests zero after a small water change on the 5g. Should I put the mantis in my sump and be safe where it may get into troube hopping baffles and getting into the return section? Or do you guys think the 5g will be ready for a temp. home? Tomorrow I wanna get a little more rock, that tanga was WAY to nice for a mantis home... Ill get some pics up once I get word on what to do here... I know I only have like 1-2 lbs of live rock in the 5g right now, I dont want to steal too much from my tank at a time. Will the mantis be alright for the time being?
 
No response yet... Im getting anxious to get the mantis in a tank. Shes been in a car for 3 hours in a snow storm. The salinity is dead on, the test came back zero for everything important, I think im going to free her in the 5 gal for the night
 
Good to hear, I hope she makes it, she sat in 1 spot not hiding under the few rocks I gave her. But now hes moving about a little. I guess I'd be scared crapless if i was sitting in a fish store for 2 years and then all of a sudden im killing a gold fish, then someone takes me on a 3 hour car ride. I cant figure out of its a crusher or a slasher really, I missed this one killing the fish, i was watching the loser mantis that didnt kill. I think online its showing the arm of a slasher when I search orange mantis. Anyone know for sure?
 
Here is a pic of Ms. Alyssa jr. (my girlfriends name) I kept teasing her that I was going to buy some coral frags and name them after her for christmas, but I found this girl instead and decided to wait until the frag swap on the 27th. I guess this species gets large. But It should take a while before Ive gotta upgrade to a 10 at least. I need to get more substrate and rock tomorrow, I wasnt prepared to pull 10 lbs out of my tank so I only took enough for her to hide under for tonight.

Aquarium321.jpg
 
I think I finally found what it actually is. Its a Rainbow mantis and can change colors when it molts to match its surroundings.

About.com: http://www.blueboard.com/mantis/pics.htm

She is acting more normal now, she in hiding between the rocks, but I obviously need a lot deeper substrate so she can make a real burrow. What do you guys do with nano tanks for keeping them clean, especially with no clean up crew... Just more frequent water changes with greater amounts of water?
 
glad you found out exactly what you had. only ones I know of are the lime green and the clown mantis. clowns are really beautiful.

good lookin shrimp though. hope it turns out to be really fun!
 
They are a stomatapod, there are tons of species, the place I got it form had it listed as an "Orange Mantis Shrimp" i couldnt find anything by that name until I found that color changing one. I still dont know if shes a crusher or a slasher, Ill have to get a feeder guppy or something tomorrow. Has any one acclimated those to saltwater in a situation like this? Just let a few of them live in there, would they overrun the tank? Or do you think Alyssa jr. would keep the population in check?
Man I wanna go back to Madison and go back to that store. We were there on a saturday, and the kid said their shipment didnt come in for the week and it was the nicest fish store ive ever seen. They had pretty decent prices too, Like the tanga for 10$ a lb in 1 bin, and i asked the guy why there was some in the figi bin marked 6$ and he said I could have it for 6... They had some colony polyps covering a small rock for 10$, ricordia, not the coolest colors, but red and a kinda cool yellow for 15$, we were full, we had a big styro with us and it was completely filled, so I hope to get some stuff there next time when we go down for the frag swap.
I was stuck working all day, so Alyssa Jr. didnt get any new stuff for her tank. Tomorrow ill get some PVC and more substrate so she can get a nice burrow going. and some more live rock to replace the stuff ill steal from ny display. Ill get up some more pictures then.
 
There was some kid there, maybe 18-21 years old, he gave me the good deals, he considered a huge piece of acro medium for 50$ for my friend. He threw in the goldfish in the mantis tanks, I assumed he ran the department, really cool guy. We got there at like 5:45 and were there till 6:30 or later, wen they close at 6. We got your PM on my phone as we were leaving, so we hit up the one on the east side. We barely made it home in time, it started getting really bad once we hit stevens point. Next time.
Hey, got any more info on that frag swap? I asked the guy at one of the stores if he knew anything about it and he said he didnt.
 
I put a piece of 3/4" PVC today and put it in the tank between the rocks to simulate a burrow until the LFS opens again allowing me to go get more substrate, she doesnt want anything to do with it. I'm pretty sure she should easily fit in it... maybe I should try 1"?
 
Cool looking mantis.
I'll give you a word of caution.Be careful messing around with that thing in a nano.If it thinks your a threat,your gonna need stitches.Mantis's are lightining fast and can inflect a serious cut before you know it.
 
Thanks for the caution, ive been very cautious around her so far, ive got a big set of tongs I use to move thigns around. Tomorrow im going to go get a feeder fish for her once the LFS opens hopefully. Havent gotten to get her to eat but a few nibbles of flake food.
 
Today I got the mantis a feeder goldfish, unfortunately it died before we got halfway home... stupid goldfish. So i waved it around in front of her, she kept punching it in the face and knocking off scales. It took a while for her to actually grab it, and i had to use tongs to keep it down at the bottom. She ate the head and let go of it again. Is that normal for her to only eat the head? Or what? She is in a small tank so I dont want to leave the carcass in there too long... What do you guys think I should do? Leave it in for a while? I pinned the fishes body below a rock so its at the bottom.
 
I went over to my friends house and to his dads house and got some mushrooms from him. His dad is so nice, he gives me his extra corals because his 75g is FULL. When I got home all is gone except the tail of the gold fish. How often should you feed a 4" mantis a 1- 1 1/2" feeder fish? once or twice a week? what should I supplement between meals? I tried some shrimp pellets but she didnt seem to eat them.
 
Mantis are predators.They like to hunt their food down and kill it when they can.Mine will eat frozen food some,but he perfers fresh meat when ever he can get it.
 

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