G. smithii care.

[Arati]

I just got a sweet G.smithii on a lucky trip to the lfs. He is liveing in my DSB fuge it a 20gal long with about 5" sand and a small pile of LR in on corner. it has about 400gph of flow going through but it doesnt seem like alot.

I read the page about them. I am wondering though how much and what type of light is best for it. Also atm it takes freezedried krill from me , but doesnt seem to bother the hermits or conch. Is there a preffered live food for it?

Is there anything else I should be be doing to care for it?


my system is 70gal mixed reef, and its clean with exellent water.

 

[Pea-brain]

That should be fine. Some mantises prefer snails over hermits....also crabs are always a fun live food Anyways as long as the sand stays put and the mantis doesn't go flying I'd say that the flow isn't too bad. They can stand some of the brightest light you can give, and their eyes adjust to best fit the spectrum/power of the light in their environment for optimal hunting so no problems there (the main issue with lighting is too powerful lighting causing shell disease in deeper water species)

Dan

 

[Arati]

You can see the water isnt that deep in the 3rd picture maybe 10"

Should I be running 48wats of t5, or 24watts of normal flourescent?

Is there a light spectrum/ best bulb for him?

I would like to add him to my DT, how are these guys on thier tankmates? I wouldnt mine him eating a few of the cuc.

 

[Thromgar]

I just got a G. Smithii and am a bit curious about the basics of caring for them as well.

Currently I have 3 medium to small sized live rock boulders stacked together to make an archway. One of them has a number of holes in it that lead to an interior pocket that the mantis has taken up residence in. Other than the rock it is just bare sand right now.

Other than the mantis I have 4 snails and 2 hermits in the tank. I am hoping he will eat one of the moving food items.

So what I need to figure out is what I should do with the substrate? Is bare sand fine with just the rock I have? Or should I add some live rock rubble? Also do I need to add a pvc den, or is he ok as it stands inside a pocket in my live rock?

Don't want to take over your thread Arati, just thought this fit right in with the questions you were asking.

Thanks

 

[Arati]

Im down to know that stuff to. I put in a piece of 3/4 with 1 end capped and he has ignored it. He is gettin better at taking frozen brine froma stick.

The perppermint shrimp are all laughin at him. here I was picturin a slaughter. He seems very docile.

 

[jpalmer]

My Smithii, "Yoda", lives inside of a rock with a fairly large cavern inside. He has a perfectly round entrance/exit molded in the rock which he plugs every night. He has taken small pieces of rock I've given him and molded them into door stops.

SO....answering your question about rubble, I believe that some would help, but there is no need to go crazy with it.

When I set up my tank I had a piece of 1 1/2 " pvs that I installed running under the sand from end to end of the tank with 90 deg elbows poking out of sand bed. Point being; my mantis likes to play in the tube and use it as a hiding place, but he does not use it as his home, and I dont know if it would be feasible for him to try and plug 2 ends with holes of that circumference..??

I just got myne like 6 weeks ago, and he just came out of a 16 day molt last Sunday...since then he has eaten 2 snails and one feeding of shrimp after his snail snack yesterday.....

Remember that Mantis' are prety smart hunters...why would your smithii want to spend a lot of time/energy busting up a snail if you are continually feeding them. The less you feed, the more active of a mantis you will have!

P.S. I'm a noob to this mantis stuff as well, but I have been reading and researching for the past 5 months almost everyday to learn about caring for them!

Good Luck

 

[Pea-brain]

Like I said, G smithii is intertidal and can take all the light you throw at them within reason.They prefer to build burrows in rock so PVC isn't necessary. Some rubble is appreciated. And a hungry mantis is an active mantis like jpalmer said.

Dan

 

[Thromgar]

So I know to feed the guy every other day or so, maybe up to 5 times a week. How much should I expect for him to eat? 1 silverside, a couple of krill?

Are emerald crabs really candy to these guys that will get them to come out and hunt no matter what?