How do you rear mantis fry?

[djchristone]

this is gonna be a straight copy and paste from the other forums i posted on =) i wanted to avoid rc since the maintenance down times or whatever in the past have annoyed me but yeah...anyway...who best to get info except from dr. roy himself right? =)

i've had her for about 2 weeks (i think) btw.
and presently in a 7gal minibow. planning on moving her out to a nc12 once my new sand comes in and i can set that one up =)

oh, one last thing, she seems really uncertain as to what to do with the egg sac..-.-

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so uh...anyone know how to take care of this? i think it would be totally awesome if i could get at least some of them to hatch and live

although yes i know breeding/rearing mantis shrimps are pretty hard if not near impossible (i do remember reading up about some lab where they had the state of the art equipment and barely did it there) but yeah. any suggestions or links? i'm pretty sick right now so staring at the computer screen too long makes me dizzy -.- or possibly it's my cough syrup (which i'm supposed to take 4 times a day -___-) which has on it's warning label may cause dizziness -__- so yeah...any helpw ould be greatly appreciated

lol it's kinda funny though. here i was thinking about trying to make a mated pair a few days earlier and all of a sudden, i have a batch of eggs...-.-

pics aren't too clear. my roommate's camera is old and i guess she (kept calling it a he all this time...) keeps moving it around. btw, this thing wasn't here last night when i checked up on her. my roommate only noticed it when he woke up around noonish

so uh yeah...any help would be appreciated.

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oh yeah...i came to this conclusion after doing a quick search on mantis breeding...and well...after this site i figured i was right on the mark...

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/marine/inverts/...antisshrimp.htm

 

[mattyice]

i left a post on N-R about it, it will be nearly impossible to rear any of them, peacocks are born small and need live food to survive, they are highly cannibalistic, even at just about 1" they are becoming post larvae from what i understand

 

[Gonodactylus]

I'm afraid you are in for a tough road. To my knowledge, no one has ever successfully reared O. scyllarus larvae. The problem is the size at which they hatch (small for stomatopods) and the fact that they are in the plankton for several months and grow to around 25 mm before they settle out. You would have much better luck with a gonodactylid such as G. chiragra or N. wennerae. However, given that you must play with the hand dealt, I can give you my best guess as to how to proceed.

1. The eggs will take three weeks to hatch. Get the female a clean, dark burrow. 2- 3 inch pvc about a foot long works well. With a sand burrow, the eggs tend to get smushed in with the sand and gravel.

2. When the eggs hatch, the larvae will remain with the female for about 5 days. After a couple of molts, they will become photopositive and the next morning you will find them swimming at the surface toward the light. If there is a window in the room, they will be headed in that direction. At this point they well have exhausted all of their stored yolk and will have only a could of days worth of energy left. You have to get them eating immediately.

3. These larvae are fairly small and they will only take live food, so you will need something like rotifers or perhaps mysid larvae. Brine nauplii soaked in nutrient also will work. Also, the stomatopod larvae are highly cannibalistic, so they need to be isolated. (Some people have had success with circular systems, but cannibalism will be high and frankly, they have not worked for me. )

I keep the larvae in individual containers, add food daily and change the water a few hours later. If you can make it through the first month, they will be able to take larger live food and you have a chance, but it is a lot of work. Good luck.

Roy

 

[djchristone]

tbh, i have no idea what's going on with her -_- i think she's eating the eggs? or as you pointed out, is it the sand/rubble rock she's covered her burrow with that tearing the egg sac? either way, i think i'll have to go home and get that pvc out my dad used for some plumbing project.

at this point, she keeps stuffing the sac into her mouth -__- and then let's it float around before she goes and gets it again to keep near her.

but i guess i'm in luck. i'm setting up a dwarf sea horse tank so i already have the makings of a brine shrimp hatchery and what not so yeah... the work i'm willing to put in to try and raise them since...well, the tank is up with me at my dorm and i'd much rather play with my tank than read for class

so uh yeah...i guess my only question right now is...what does it mean when this egg sac is getting torn? -.- is it game over now? :\

 

[Gonodactylus]

The eggs are typically carried in the 3-5th maxilipeds. She uses these mouthparts to clean them and to provide good circulation. However, they do not hold the eggs all of the time. When disturbed, they will usually pick up the eggs.

If the eggs are not fertilized, some how the females can detect this and the eggs are usually eaten within a few days. If the female was just purchased and recently had been in the wild, there is a good chance that she had stored sperm. However, if she molted since last copulating, the sperm stores are lost with the molt skin and the eggs will be unfertilized.

Roy

 

[djchristone]

yep the female was purchased and knowing how that lfs does everything, probably has been out of the wild for maybe 2 and a half weeks at most (including time she has been with me).

and there must have been a lot of unfertilized eggs since around half of them are now gone O.O reminds me of when i used to breed bettas. the male would do something similar with unfertilized eggs.

btw, thanks for your help!