Help my mantis broke his claws off!!!!

[Alex]

I just wen to see my mantis and I am horrified to see that his raptoral apendages are laying in front of and behind his rocks. He has no clubs left!!!!!! I have never seen this before and I am fearing the worst. I just feed him part of a shrimp yesterday and today I find him this way.

I don't know what to do now someone please tell me what is happening.

Alex

 

[Shia]

If mantis stop using there smasher, than the smasher tends to fall off. Also I doubt this but he could have broken it off on something extremely hard. What you could do is put some empty shells in the tank with him, and also start giving him a little harder food but not too hard that he would need his club to break. Eventually have his molt the club should start coming back.

 

[Gonodactylus]

Alex,

If the raptorial appendages become disabled and a stomatopod is not molting, they break off the appendages so that they can grow new ones. They also do this sometimes if the appendage is stuck in a net or other object. Molting is the other time when appendages frequently get stuck and are torn off.

This is going to take three or four molts for them to regenerate to full size - probably close to a year. If the animal gets lots of soft food to eat rich in calcium, it may well survive.

Why this happens is generally a mystery, although many kinds of stress can cause it. These include cold, heat, salinity, organic solvents in the water, low oxygen, heavy metals, etc. The metabolic pathway that powers the strike is based on a very high energy, but sensitive arginine phosphate system. When something destroys the muscle, the animal appears to have no choice but to tear off the appendages and start over.

 

[jsronce]

Dr. Caldwell,

I have a question about chemicals mantis shrimps are sensitive to. Our new O. scyllarus is in a tank in our bedroom. When the shower is used, the smell of the perfumes in the shampoo and conditioner we use is very strong. So far I just open the window for a bit to air the room out, and the mantis seems fine.

Are the chemicals in shampoo be harmful? Should we move the tank out of the room? It's been years since college and chemistry never was my strong point.

TIA

Jennifer

 

[Gonodactylus]

I really can't give you a definitive answer. Strong cleaning products can certainly cause problems, but the concentrations of volitle chemicals used in scents is probably so low that you are safe. Most of my experience has been with lab chemicals like formalin, acetone, xylene, insecticides, etc. They are bad news. We even lost all of the animals in the lab once due to a custodian who cleaned and waxed the floor.

Roy

 

[jsronce]

Thanks for the answer! I'll keep opening the window whenever possible just in case. But, I try not to use strong cleaners or any pesticides in the apartment anyway. Too many animals and my husband has allergies to some chemicals.

The new mantis is fun to have in the bedroom. I woke up this morning and could see her head poking out from the rocks. She watches us every time we come in the room. She seems comfortable, ate the first day we had her, and has excavated hideouts under two rocks. I guess there's not much for her to do but watch the world outside her tank. It's odd how the curiousity goes both ways.

Do mantis shrimps get bored? Do they change behaviours like mammals when they don't have anything to do? Is there anything you can give a mantis to "entertain" it?

I know the questions are off-the-wall, but I'm curious.

Jennifer

 

[Gonodactylus]

Well, I supposed you could give it a mate. That might relieve the bordome for a day or two.

Probably the best thing is a complex tank with lots of different sized pieces of gravel and bits of LR. They constantly build and modify burrows and seem to do best when they have that option.

Roy

 

[jsronce]

Heh, I was trying to get a male for our first female when I got this female. I'm all out of tanks that could house a big shrimp now. Hmm. I know some LFS that's put their 20 gal acrylics on clearance... must resist urge to buy more tanks... just got paycheck today... resistance getting weaker....

Thanks for the suggestions about gravel and liverock. I'll pick up some small rocks to add to the tanks!

Jennifer

 

[cephalopoder]

About a week ago My peacock stoped eating, closed all openings to her den and I didn't see her for a few days. I figured she was molting. A day or two later she poked her head out of her den and then opend up her second door. She didn't eat for a few more days, ignoreing fiddlers and snails in the tank. This morning she started taking squid she was offerd. When I got home today I saw part of her club on the surface of the sand. I removed it and inspected it.
I then lured her out with some more squid so I could get a good look at her and I could see both appendages were fully intact. I searched the sand for any other remains of her molt but could find none. Is it likely she ate the complete molt, leaving only the part she couldn't digest?
Attached is a picture of what I found.

 

[Gonodactylus]

That is exactly what happend. They will eat everything but the dactyls. Sometimes the animals will take the molt skin away from the burrow and bury it, digging it up again later to eat when their mandibles are sufficiently hard to crunch through the old cuticle. You can search the immediate area and not find it, then discover it in another part of the tank. I've seen Odontodactylus do this in the field, so it seems to be part of their predator avoidance, food conservation behavior.

Roy

 

[Alex]

Thanks for the help everyone. I will start to add more shells, crabs and snails for him to eat. Hopfully he will regrow his claws.

Thanks again fo all the help

Alex

 

[Gonodactylus]

Alex,

Hold off on the hard food until the animal has molted at least twice. The mandibles can cut through muscle and thin cuticle, but there is no way it can eat a snail now unless you crush it and pick out the meat. At this point, shrimp, krill, bivalve tissue, etc. would be best. You might try soaking the soft food in Selco or some other liquid nutrient to give the animals an extra boost.

Roy

 

[Alex]

ok I get what you are saying.

I was feeding shrimp, formula1 , formula2, squid


I am turning his tank into a reef soon so I will be adding the snails and crabs in a month or two.

Alex

Happy Easter everyone