Holy Crap!! Wtf??

[AW2EOD]

I was just watching my peacock, cause he came out of his cave.

His smashers have changed and now appear to be spears. There are 1/4" long spikes coming out of the top of his clubs.

Then, as I'm watching him, he crawls around and pulls one of his smasher arms off, with his other legs!!!!!! WTF?????

He just crawled back into his cave, and I cant see him now.

I'm freakin' out!

 

[majestic sea life]

hear is what DR. Roy said "The dactyl heels typically are worn and flat. They should regenerate and become slightly more rounded at the next molt. They will not regenerate without a molt. It they break or wear through, the animal will usually tear them off and start over.

I would not recommend shifting to a softer food. The animal needs to strike to maintain muscle tone and successfully molt."

 

[AW2EOD]

So....he's getting ready to molt or what?

I've kept mantis before, but actually never had one molt, so it freaked me out when he started breaking his own arms off.

 

[AW2EOD]

ALSO...

is it safe for him to be eating the two smasher arms that he tears off?

He's working on the second arm, trying to break it off. He just crawled out of his cave, struggling with the arm. Then, found the one that he already broke off.....picked it up, and started eating it. Then, ran back into his cave, eating his own broke off arm.

These are wierd creatures. lol

 

[Gonodactylus]

As I tried to point out in the other thread, stomatopods have no way to autotomize (lose) an appendage like a crayfish, crab or lobster can making use of specialized muscles and joints to break off the appendage. If a stomatopod appendage is damaged, they will often tear off the appendage(s). Later they will molt starting the regeneration process. Tearing off the appendage is not the beginning of the molt. However, occasionally when an animal molts, the raptorial appendages become stuck in the old molt skin and the animal can't free itself. If this happens, it has no choice but to tear off the appendage.

Either way, something has caused the appendages to be damaged. This can happen from mechanical damage or from some physiological problems. Cold, heat, organic solvents, high ammonia levels, improper salinity and low oxygen levels are just some of the factors that can cause the raptorial appendages to fail due to permanent damage to the muscles. Usually when this happens, the "club" is extended 90 degrees and rarely recovers functin. If the animal survives, the raptorial appendages are torn off.

What you witnessed is not normal and it is not part of the normal molting process. It does represent an attempt by the animal fix the problem.

Roy

 

[AW2EOD]

Gonodactylus,

Thanks for the info. Well...he has torn off both raptorial arms and has eaten most of them.

He started doing this, as I stated, last night (Fri). But, as of Thurs, he was fine. I did notice, last night, that the clubs were worn down and almost flat.

When I saw him doing this, last night, the first thing I thought of was high nitrates or ammonia. I checked everything from salinity to ph to water temp. and everything is normal.

So, other than that....I'm not sure what's wrong with him.

I woke up this morning, and the water in the tank was cloudy. I found the mantis and he appeared to be stuck under the large lice rock piece that his cave is under. It looked like he had been digging, last night and the rock slid down on top of him. I reached into the tank and with one hand lifted up the rock. With my other hand, I grabbed the mantis and pulled him out. Now, he seems to be fine. But, the water is still couldy.

 

[AW2EOD]

Update...

Well, since my last post, the cloudiness in the tank has gone away and the mantis seems to be just fine. Guess he just needed to get those worn down arms off. Once he was back in his cave, I reach in the tank and pulled out the torn off arms. The heels were definately worn flat, so I guess they were really no use to him then.

I'll have to wait and see what's next...should he be molting soon?

I'm getting ready to move him from my 55gal. tank to a new 40gal. cube that I am setting up. Everything from my 15gal. reef is going in the tank (25lb live rock and another 35lb from the 55gal).

Roy, would my wartskin angler be ok in the same tank as the mantis? I know anglers will often try to eat things bigger than them, but my mantis is pushing 6" - 7". I dont think the angler would be that stupid.

 

[Gonodactylus]

I normally advise against mixing species. The O. scyllaru certainly will not be able to damage the fish for a couple of molts - at least 6 months - and I doubt that the angler will go after the mantis with one possible exception. When the stomatopod molts it can be easily damaged. Also, a lot of fluid is released that can attract predators. I would worry a bit about an attack at this time, but chances are nothing wil happen. I guess it really depends on how much you value the two animals.

Roy

 

[AW2EOD]

Well...I moved my mantis to his new home, last night...the 40gal. cube. Within 20 min, he was already building a new home and was doing great. Running around, gathering rocks and peeking out of his cave, awaiting food.

I woke up, this morning, for work and thought I'd check on him. Got out my red lense flashlight and started searching, to no avail. Started to walk away, to finish getting ready for work, and found him on his back...against the baseboard, on the floor. sad.gif

Somehow, he managed to crawl out of the tank, sometime last night, with only a 1" gap on the back of the tank.

Now, with them being out of season, it'll be quite a while before I find another one.

 

[Gonodactylus]

It is unusal for a large O. scyllarus to crawl more than an inch or two out of the water. I've seen them go over a partition that was an inch out of the water, but that is usually it. They are a strictly subtidal species and have no evolutionary experience with air.

On the other hand, O. scyllarus are strong swimmers and when startled, can propel themselves 3 or 4 inches out of the water. My guess is that at some point the animal was spooked and shot to the surface flying through the crack. This is even more likely given the new surroundings and recent loss of raptorial appendages. It's bad luck that it just happened to hit the gap, but this should serve as a warning to other keepers of Odontodactylus that they at times can and do jump. I would always want a lid and/or at least 4 inches of freeboard.

Roy