first mantis!!!

[Danyal]

after quite a while(well over a year) of lurking on this forum i'm now the proud new owner of the guy above. any idea how long i can expect him to stay hidden? i've seen him once since putting him into the tank then he dissapeared under a peice of rock(not the perfect cave in the piece of fiji i've got) how interactive should i expect him to be? fish friendly? oh and for anyone in the sac area looking for mantis shrimp, Coral Reef Shop still has 4 of them in stock under 3" long.

 

[Pea-brain]

Would probably be okay with water column fish like chromis and damsels. Could stay hidden for a couple of weeks and only come out to eat, or be very shy and never really be active at all. hard to tell. Usually get pretty well settled by end of first month. Not very interactive, but it looks like G. viridis or maybe N. wennerae so it will probably be active.

Dan

 

[Danyal]

i believe it's G. viridis but the guy at CRS said they all came from florida. so am i not likely to see it much besides occassional glimpses of it at feeding time?

 

[Pea-brain]

until it gets settled. I'm not saying it WILL be like that, but it is an unlikely possibility. Mantises just aren't that predictable. Give it a few weeks and it will probly be pretty active actually. If it is from florida it is N. wennerae most likely.

Dan

 

[Danyal]

he's a solid green, no patterns at all other than the spots you see in the pic. i'm pretty sure there was an N. wennerae at the shop though. how long should i wait to feed it? the guy at CRS said they had them all eating crabs and krill. so far i don't even know where it's burrow is. i've got nerites, ceriths, nassarius snails, malaysian trumpet snails and blue leg hermits in the tank as live food.

 

[Danyal]

any suggestions for making PVC caves for him?

 

[Danyal]

i've noticed that all my hermits(had ~7 blue legged) and smaller snails are no-where to be seen so i assume he's eaten. i've found where the den is but still haven't seen it come out. however i have tried feeding him 3 times and have seen him eat twice(i suspect he took it the first time when i wasn't looking) the first two times just a thawed piece of krill and the last time, about 4 days ago, i stuffed a piece of krill and some mysis shrimps into an empty nerite shell in hopes of him bashing it a bit and getting some exercise(didn't work, he just flipped it over) how often should i feed him?

 

[Pea-brain]

once every 2-3 days is usually recommended.

Dan

 

[Danyal]

cool, i've thrown in about a dozen shrimp and haven't seen them. do you think he got them? i haven't seen him leave the hole yet and only time i've seen him move is the two times i've fed him, usually i don't even see him.

 

[crazyaggie05]

i feed mine krill on a skewer, give that a shot versus just throwing them in the tank. you dont want that food to go uneaten and spoil your water