Baby Mantis

[Aquarianna7891]

Hi-

I just pulled a itty bitty blueish mantis (3/4" long, maybe a bit more) out of a shipment of rock. Since this guy is so tiny, how do I take care of him? At the moment, all I have to keep him in is a 2 liter coke bottle. If I do frequent water changes, will this temporary home be sufficient?

Better yet, if any of you are interested in this baby, feel free to say so.

Thanks

Anna

 

[jsronce]

I think I've heard that you could never wash all the residue out of a coke bottle and make it safe for a mantis.

The tiny ones don't need a lot of water, but they need enough that there won't be large swings in water quality caused by evaporation or food decomposition. The consensus seems to be that, for the smaller species, an Eclipse 6 works just fine. If you've got a WalMart nearby, you can buy a Regent 5 (made by the same company as Eclipse) for under $50. you can set it up the way it came, or add a skimmer (or plumb it to an existing system) to improve the performance. Also, you can use a smaller tank or something with no filtration of its own, if you plumb it to your other tank.

If you do decide you'd rather get rid of it, I'm in Seattle, WA. We could work something out to pay shipping. HTH

Jennifer

 

[Aquarianna7891]

Sounds like I'm gonna sell/trade him to someone else. I already have an interest, but if it falls through, I'll let ya know.

 

[jsronce]

Okay, no problemo.

Jennifer

 

[Ananda]

With a mantis *that* small, you could keep it in a KritterKeeper in your main tank.