Do mantis ever molt out in open?

[forrestp38829]

I recently moved my G. smithii to another tank besides my reef tank.
In her new tank she has no predators and quickly familiarized herself with it.

She crafted a small burrow under the live rock and ate from there or even spent time hanging out in the open for several days.

Now she is lying on her "back" kinda curled up and every few seconds making a hard twitch, she even seems to be hitting herself with her raptoral app. Where does the molt start, cause she has developed a white line on the mid-sagittal line of her last tail segment before the teslon sp?.

Sorry for spelling kinda in a hurry.

Will post pics as soon as i can


Thanks,
Forrest

 

[forrestp38829]

She is about 4inches long and I have had her for about a year.

 

[Guygettnby]

sorry to say but i do think she may die. every mantis i have had do that has died shortly there after. was the new tank cycled? did you aclimate her to the new tank? what are the water parameters?

was she hiding when you went to move her to the new tank? how long has she been in the new tank?

 

[gharner]

my first wennerae did this shortly after i got him....he died a day or so later.

 

[forrestp38829]

Well, she was dead when I woke up this moning.

The tank was cycled, but I probably traumatized her removing her from her "old" piece of rock.

She ate and behaved normally for about a month.

I guess she was about 4yrs old, and the stress was too much.

Thanks for the advice,

Forrest

 

[Guygettnby]

sorry to hear about your lose. when a mantis does that it is never a good sign and the best thing you could do would be to leave it alone and turn off the lights. some times they make it and some times they dont. my peacock did that after having a failed molt and she fought for about 1 1/2 months before she finally died. i had to force food in her face to eat.

 

[gharner]

sorry to hear about your loss. your smithii was a very beautiful mantis. it is a little odd though that she was fine for a month or so after she was moved...they usually seem to show signs of distress right after they are moved. maybe she was just old?

 

[kdblove_99]

Sorry to hear about your loss