8" Lysiosquillid needs a new home

[kul976]

unfortunately on my buying spree of tanks and mantises...
i've overspent on my budget... i'm also moving homes in about
a week or so... so i recently got an 8" Lysiosquillid spearer from my lfs and i regretfully cannot care for him anymore.. so
if anyone wants to adopt... or make a small donation for him i would gladly give him to you... i'm selling the tank he's in too if anyone's interested.. 30gallon clear for life... so if anyone is interested in getting this monster mantis.. please email me
at frankxchi@hotmail.com.. i will be out of town for the rest of this week but will return emails next week... please... california inquiries only.. i prefer not to ship.

 

[maniac13]

YGM .... I will take him from you



Bob

 

[ADHybrid]

Hello, I'm from selma california and I'm REALLY interested in you mantis for my friend. He's getting like a 200 g aquarium and he really wants a HUGE mantis for it. We will be willing to pic it up if you wish and we will pay you however much you want for it. Please E-mail me at CrazyPunkKid@hotmail.com with your reply. Thank you very much!!!

 

[Gonodactylus]

I understand that many people would be excited to have an eight inch Lysiosquillina, but these animals are not O. scyllarus. They have rather special needs. Lysiosquillids are burrowing, sit and wait predators that mostly sit and wait. In nature, they almost never appear on the surface. Rather, they live in monogamous pairs in HUGE burrow. A pair of foot long Lysios can have a burrow 3 inches in diameter and several feet long (the largest burrow I ever measured was 4 inches in diameter and over 30 feet long).

In captivity, these animals need a burrow. If they are forced to live on the surface, they do not eat well and they often develop algal and fungal growths. They typically burrow in sand which they mix with mucus to form the burrow wall and caps. However, an adult male (which is almost certainly what you would find in a lfs) cannot produce enough mucus to start a burrow. In the field they gradually enlarge them over many years (they can live 20 years or more). Therefore you need to provide the animal with a dark,long burrow. I keep my animals in 3" diameter PVC buried in sand. The burrow should be at least twice the length of the animal. If you had a deep sand bed under live rock, you could bury the burrow in the sand.

These animals undergo an obligatory molt every three or four months. If they are not eating enough, they actually shrink. During the molt, they will quit eating for a couple of weeks. Don't try to force food on them - they just won't eat. I find that they will take a variety of food - shrimp, krill, live fish, but they do seem to suffer nutritional deficits in aquaria. They frequently develop deformed raptorial appenages when molting. They also can become stuck in the molt skin. Either problem can be fatal.

Still, they are spectacular animals and you can keep them around for a very long time. I just lost one that I had had for over six years and it was a large male when I captured it.

Roy

 

[Gonodactylus]

I understand that many people would be excited to have an eight inch Lysiosquillina, but these animals are not O. scyllarus. They have rather special needs. Lysiosquillids are burrowing, sit and wait predators that mostly sit and wait. In nature, they almost never appear on the surface. Rather, they live in monogamous pairs in HUGE burrow. A pair of foot long Lysios can have a burrow 3 inches in diameter and several feet long (the largest burrow I ever measured was 4 inches in diameter and over 30 feet long).

In captivity, these animals need a burrow. If they are forced to live on the surface, they do not eat well and they often develop algal and fungal growths. They typically burrow in sand which they mix with mucus to form the burrow wall and caps. However, an adult male (which is almost certainly what you would find in a lfs) cannot produce enough mucus to start a burrow. In the field they gradually enlarge them over many years (they can live 20 years or more). Therefore you need to provide the animal with a dark,long burrow. I keep my animals in 3" diameter PVC buried in sand. The burrow should be at least twice the length of the animal. If you had a deep sand bed under live rock, you could bury the burrow in the sand.

These animals undergo an obligatory molt every three or four months. If they are not eating enough, they actually shrink. During the molt, they will quit eating for a couple of weeks. Don't try to force food on them - they just won't eat. I find that they will take a variety of food - shrimp, krill, live fish, but they do seem to suffer nutritional deficits in aquaria. They frequently develop deformed raptorial appendages when molting. They also can become stuck in the molt skin. Either problem can be fatal.

Still, they are spectacular animals and you can keep them around for a very long time. I just lost one that I had had for over six years and it was a large male when I captured it.

Roy

 

[newspaperpopcorn]

killjoy

 

[orkspace]

We're quite lucky to have a killjoy like Dr. Roy Caldwell!

Roy, thank you for your many contributions to this forum and to aquarists in general! I doubt many hobbyists would have gotten to appreciate how fascinating stomatopods are had Roy not been such an accessible and reliable source of information.

 

[JEMichael IV]

I would love to see a picture of this guy.