Boring mantis

[Frozen Roadkill]

Alright, ill get right down too it. My mantis is way too nice. This is an odd complaint I know, but when I first was getting a mantis I wanted a mean, interactive stomatopod, but I decided I would try something other than a peacock. So, about 8 or 9 months ago, packed in a water bottle and strait from Florida, I got my mantis.
He is about 3" now and his color isnt anything to brag about, he used to be a mottled blue almost but is now more brown. I have just recentally started feeding chucks of silverside to him, as well as krill and any mysis he catch when I feed my wrasse. Is there anything he is lacking in his diet? I feel like I was starving him with those frozen krill, they look like they lack the gore more mantis' crave.
But he is so nice, that now I feed him strait from my fingers and he doesn't even hit the food like he used to, just takes up gently. Hermit crabs die of natural causes. My wrasses swims by his antennae. Astrea snails, juicy and slow, don't even eat algae anymore, just hang around and chill.
Do I just have a docile mantis, or is this pretty typical of N. Wennerae? If he is just docile, is that his personality or is their anyway I can help unleash his inner smasher?

Thanks!

Also, can anyone tell from this picture his/her gender? I know its blurry and so I won't be offeneded if anyone lets me know its too darn blurry to tell!

(Picture are before he got his bland coloring)

 

[Pea-brain]

Yes, it is very blurry I'd guess female, but I can't know for sure. Are the tank params okay? Now your mantis is a lazy, slow, moochy jerk. Give it a crash diet. that is right, stop feeding it. it will get the picture pretty quick. A general rule of thumb is to resume normal feeding only if it hasn't eaten for 3 weeks. Usually (or so I hear) a 2 week crash diet does wonders on a lazy mantis.

 

[Frozen Roadkill]

Female? Weird, haha, iv been calling it a guy but I had my suspiscions. The tank params are good, though I seem to be going through a second algae cycle (More about that in the nano reefs section, under the post "Second Algae Cycle??" haha) But SHES (weird hehe) always been lazy. And I well try the crash diet, but if she is really hungrey and her usual tactic doesnt work (she has trained my mom to feed her by standing on her highest hole in the live rock and giving her starving puppy dog eyes), she just sits there with all her little arms and appendages out waiting for one of my wrasses mysis to float by to grab. Lazy shrimp

 

[justinl]

Astreas snails have thick shells so a small mantis like N. wennerae generally won't bother going after them. Try stocking with some thin shelled snails. A starvation period should get it going on the live food because I don't think it would get enough food from just the odd frozen mysid. If you want you could feed the wrasse only a little at a time to make sure it gets the food before it settles on the floor for the mantis. And don't let your mum feed it because that would completely defeat the purpose of starvation.

BTW i think that although "mean" wouldn't be an attribute of your mantis, it sure does sound plenty interactive. Ive only ever seen one other pic where an owner hand fed a mantis and that was only possible because the mantis had just lost its dactyls in a molt.

 

[SkiFletch]

Wow, can't say I'd ever work up the gumption to feed a mantis by hand, even a lazy one :lol:

Edit: btw in addition to what was said about astreas having thick shells, I hear smaller mantis shrimp like wennerae and smithii will go after cerith or nassarius snails...

 

[justinl]

There was a thread under the title "My new O havanensis" that said Nassarius and Astreas don't work. Ceriths were an uncertainty. Nerites worked.

 

[Thurge]

When I had and N.wennera he really had to work to get an Astrae snail shell open, and that was only when he was on the upper end of N.wennera growth potential. Bubble Bee snails work good as do Trochus and Margarita's.

N.wennera are kind of peaceful mantis, I would hand feed mine also. The G. grapherus I have now is a totally differend story. That little bugger stabbed me the last time I pulled that trick. He even bangs on the tongs I feed him with now.

 

[Frozen Roadkill]

Yeah, even my mom, who originally said why on earth would you want something that could break your finger, hand feed mine now. And don't worry, before it got so 'sweet', she would come up close to the krill like she was gonna take it, and very quickly dart around and smack my finger. It never break the skin, but scare the crud outta me.

But so would the snails you all suggested be totally reef safe? And my mantis wont touch my nassarius snails, haha.

 

[justinl]

in a tank filled with hermits and snails and a mantis, the least reef safe organism would be the mantis. Man you guys need to get a video of this hand feeding trick. I really would like to see this.

 

[ksrinlv]

Hmmmm..... guess my N.Wennerae are feisty, and perhaps hungry!! The only snail to live long with my first one were the bumble bee snails, the shells were just too thick I think, and of course the large turbo snails are left alone. Nerites, nassarius, astreas, ceriths, no problem! Shrimp are a quick treat (oops on my part! lol!) and even emerald crabs are eventually invited to dinner. Perhaps that's it, my mantis's almost always have some snails/hermits in the neighborhood and I feed them sporadically at best. And when I do feed them a bit of shrimp on a skewer I sometimes play with them enough to get them to smash on the stick - fun! Both mantis tanks have a fish in them, no problems there, but anything with a shell better beware!!

 

[Frozen Roadkill]

Yup, my mantis begs like a little dog for scraps until you hand her a peice of fish. My wrasse has gone around with a small bruise a few times though, possible from the mantis but more likely from it being clumsiy.

But a video of me hand feeding the mantis would be SO BORING compared to the videos of the mantis' attacking shimp and crabs and such. It would just by my mantis casually taking a krill, its smashers tucked at the side. Haha.

Once I get my little cyano problem under control though, I will definataly get a couple lil' ol thin shelled snails and "accidentally" drop them near my mantis' hole.

But does anyone have a good name for my mantis, which is apparentally a girl? It was originally named Ty Pennington, after the extreme home makeover guy, cause as soon as she was in the tank, she started renovating it.

 

[Ms. K]

looks like a female G. ternatensis to me...noticed the mottling on the raptorials and the pink dactyls. The antennal scales are pale orangish. cool mantis.

 

[Frozen Roadkill]

Naw, its a lil Wennerae, strait outta Florida

 

[wooglin]

I dont know what kind I have, its red, about 2-3 inches long and she is a feedubg monster. She ate a yellow hairy crab that was double her size in a day. The way she ate it was what was crazy. First the claws. Cracked them like I would. The the body. When she was done she deposited the carcas on a rock anenome which then tried to eat the remains. It spit it out after a day and I disposed of what was left.

 

[Frozen Roadkill]

I want my mantis to do stuff like that, haha