Introducing my new mantis home (pics)

[CodeToad]

I have been working on a new home for my male OS for a while now, and its finally done! I'm excited, he seems to love his new home. I'll get on with the pictures, he is about 6 inches long.

He was in an old Eclipse 6 untill his new home could be built and finished. I tried to make it as accomidating as possible, but I don't think he was very happy in there as he swam around alot hugging the sides... He had a cave but I don't think it was good enough for him to completly hide himself.

Another shot of the old setup, you can see he's too big for it:

At last, the new setup! It is a DIY acrylic, I used the pins method learned here in the DIY section. The tank is 20 long by 16 wide and is about 20 gallons. The canopy was of course a DIY job and I have 2 13W PC 10000K lights for him. In these pictures there is only 1 of the PC's light, I got a bad bulb in my shipment, but thats OK. I am using an aquaclear 150 for filtration.

He has a great cave system that has a large central cave with 4 openings, he seems happy. Today is his second day in his new home and he is already busy busy working. This is the view from the front:

And finally a view from the side, you can see the other two holes in his cave. (this one is a little blury due to an unsteady photographers hand )

Tonight he has already started to gather rubble and cover up one of the holes, I am hoping he decides to shed his skin as he hasn't done it yet since I have had him. Thanks for all the great info I get here guys, glad to be a part of this group

 

[Algae Blenny]

Cool. Nice tank. He is giant!

 

[jjrock]

Nice work Matt. Is he feeding well? How often does he eat? I just got some pics of my Mantis and will be posting them momentarily.

JJ.

 

[CodeToad]

I saw your post, looks great He eats very well, I try to go to the LFS once a week or so and buy some turbosnails and blue-legged hermits. He much prefers the turbo's but will settle for the blue-leggeds in a pinch. If he eats them all and I am unable to get to the LFS I feed him some frozen krill and such. As for the past few days he has been VERY preoccupied with moving rubble around to cover up his cave holes, he hasn't been going after teh few remaining turbos or hermits, but he is more than willing to grab a chunk of krill, what a spoiled brat.

 

[Mr aqua]

If u wanna see what he can really do. Put in a freshwater crayfish. It's an epic battle. And its exactly why anyone would have one. Just make sure to remove the remains, i like to leave the claws as trophies. hehe -

 

[DensityMan]

Very nice setup and that mantis is a GIANT for certain... a pretty giant even...

If this 6" monster of a Mantis against a large crayfish rates as an epic battle, for this weight division, I may have to try bringing home a few large ghost shrimp for Tim to spar with...

/mantis-size-envy ON

( )

 

[jjrock]

CodeToad,

Can you try and get a close-up of *insert name here*? I'm putting together a site dedicated to home mantis keepers which will have forums, galleries, and the while bit. I can put a feature together for your mantis.

Do you have a name for him/her?

JJ.

 

[CodeToad]

jjrock,

Here are a few pictures of him. My little brother named him 'Rocky' because he moves the rubble rocks I gave him around all day long, and the name stuck. It's appropriate I suppose. That would be cool about the site you mentioned, what is the URL? Here are some pictures, if you want any more info or anything let me know.

 

[jjrock]

Nice pics Matt. I'll post the URL as soon as I get a page worth looking at together. Give me a few days and I'll have a discussion forum up and some galleries for our critters.

Very nice pictures ... Rocky is a very suitable name. My Peacock loves playing with the rocks too, it's a blast to watch.

I'll keep in touch re: the webpage.

JJ.