G. Smithii

[kwj]

Does anyone out there know of a place to get a G. Smithii fromn reliably. I am looking to do a mantis tank and from what I've read, the G. Smithii is the mantis for me. It seems that they are hard to come by, but if anyone could at least give me an idea of where to start looking, aside from under rocks in the indo-pacific.

 

[travisurfer]

you can try ordering peacocks from your lfs until you get a smithi:rollface:

 

[Thurge]

No there is no place that you can get a guaranteed G. smithii, or even reliably get one. With very few exceptions you won't find ANY specific mantis. The exceptions being TBS who sells N.wennera that they collect from their rubble pile in the gulf, and Peacock mantis (but probably 1/2 of those aren't actually Peacocks). Mantis don't work like fish. 99.99% of the mantis that enter the trade are hitchhickers. There isn't enough demand for workers to spend time identifying mantis.

 

[travisurfer]

i asked what species the mantis at the lfs was and i was told it was a peacock. but its really a g. graphurus/glabrous species. most people dont really care about stomatopods.

 

[DylanE]

http://store.fishsupplyunderwater.com/coral---inverts-shrimp-mantis-shrimp.html




i dunno if its really going to be a peacock, but it says it is, lol.

 

[Thurge]

Stockphoto of the G.chigra.....
Also there have been some rather unhappy people who have dealt with them, ordering all kinds of things. Things are great if you have no problems, but their customer service totally blows if things don't go according to plan.

 

[kwj]

That's basically what I've been hearing. I figured I'd ask anyway, just in case. Thanks for the help.