LFS or Online?

[Shawn D]

I am looking into getting a peacock mantis Odontodactylus scyllarus and was wondering if I should try to get one at my lfs (great people but dont know much about mantises) or online from stomatopod.com (is this the Divers Den of mantis shrimp???)

thanks for your help

 

[crazyaggie05]

id say online if you arent spun up on ID's. LFS's tend to mis-label livestock.

 

[helipilot]

I've purchased all of my mantis online, except for my chiragra.

 

[rlf_racing]

I would go with stomatopod.com. They always have a nice selection of mantis shrimp and they are labeled correctly.

 

[Pea-brain]

LFS are well known for giving out overpriced, unhealthy and unidentified stomatopods (or give you a completely wrong ID)

Stomatopod.com has few, if any complaints and always ships out healthy and ID'd animals.

Not to say all LFS are bad, but most of them can't ID and many of them don't even provide simple burrows. I'd rather stick with a specialist provider in this case.

Dan

 

[Kzinti]

I agree with the above posts, I have had nothing but good experiences with stomatopod.com

 

[Crawling68]

Most of mine came from the LFS with the exception of a couple from people on here(including the Dr. himself). I am hesitant to buy form online suppliers, but then, ive had most of mine before Stomatopod.com existed.

 

[Shawn D]

I went with stomatopod.com and just ordered a peacock, great customer service as well

 

[Shawn D]

I went with stomatopod.com and just ordered a peacock, great customer service as well

 

[justinl]

I agree with the above, but I got both of my mantids (O.s. and a G. smithii) from my lfs. The trick when buying a mantis from the lfs is knowledge. You have to be aware enough to look for the signs of a bad mantis and a have a half decent ability to ID them helps greatly.

 

[MantisO_o]

i love you ppl...lol i been breaking my back looking for mantis shrimps and most of every where would be like one found in diff places and stomatopod.com all in one shot! thanks!!!

 

[kdblove_99]

Shawn,

We just did a group buy in our area through Stomatopod.com. They were awesome and we also got over 10 specimans they all came in alive, healthy and eating crabs right away.

What number peacock did you get 2 or 3?

 

[Shawn D]

I actually got O. Scyllarus 10 but am going out of town until the 25th and Billy is holding him for me until I get back in town. Fantastic customer service, and I cant wait to get my mantid

 

[Pea-brain]

yeah, 3 passed away for unknown reasons and 2 will be mine within the next couple of weeks

Dan

 

[kdblove_99]

Cool!

Shawn for our group buy it was out of #6 and #10 for me and i choose #6 here is the thread i posted pics of each right on top of each other
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1307501&perpage=25&pagenumber=16

 

[kdblove_99]

Dan #2 was definetly nice. Think if it had both raptorals it would have went awhile ago! It still should have.

Only lonely #4 left i told Billy #4 might be a hard sell

YOu didnt get that last Wennerae did you? I liked that one the best the whole time why i didnt get it with the group buy i will never know

 

[Shawn D]

kdblove, thank you very much for getting #6 hahaha