Help with my Peacock Mantis

[taketz]

Well, tonight, when i heard the usual tap-tap-tap in my tank. I actually looked in the right place and saw the mantis. I have been trying the inverted bottle trick for a few days now and since that hadn't been working, i decided to try the FW dip.

I freshwater dipped the piece of LR for @30 seconds hoping that he would make a run for it. Since he didn't, I took a small hammer and started chipping away at his rock. Now i was VERY careful to try and not hit him and finally i made enough progress into his rock to take a feeding stick and pull him out.

My question is this; He is now moving very slowly and seems like he is either a) Dying or b) faking like he is dying. He has snapped at the feeding stick a few times but mostly seems to be playing dead. The only thing that is consistantly moving seems to be his little flipper like things on the underside of his tail. I guess i am just asking how hardy this species is and if this behavior is normal for a stressed Peacock mantis.

Thanks for the reply.

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[VL]

And why were you doing this to him in the first place?

 

[taketz]

He was in some TBS i received for my reef tank.

Can someone please help me out here, I really didn't mean to hurt the little guy.

~

 

[Hwarang]

Well if it came from TBS rock it's probably not a peacock mantis.

Also, why are you doing this? Is your goal to remove a pest or torture a pet? I can't tell...

 

[taketz]

Really?....I thought Peacocks were common from TBS. Well, in any matter, it looks like a Peacock with its coloration and i'm pretty sure it has meral spots.

My goal was to remove a pest from the tank and then keep him in a species container until someone who wanted him and had a tank set up for him could pick him up.

If i just happened across a few frags during the process then i would decline them either.

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[Hwarang]

It's probably a juvenile N. wennerae, the coloration might be confusing/similar. Odontodactylus scyllarus (peacock) is an Indo-Pacific species. There is also a mantis shrimp forum at www.reefs.org, you might have luck trading it for corals there.

Good lucK!
-me

 

[taketz]

Thanks a bunch man, heading over to my apartment now to see if he made it through the night. I'm gonna feel awful if i killed him.

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[Hwarang]

Well I don't know why extracting him from the burrow would necessarily kill him, unless it's from stress.

If you kicked up a bunch of sediment and stuff in the tank when you were messing with the LR, give your ammonia and nit's a quick check then do a water change just to be sure. That's about all I can think of.

Unless you actually injured it with the feeding stick.

good lcuk!