mantis = cat TV

[catdoc]

I'm up WAY too late tonight. The house is dark and quiet when I hear a tell-tale "click, CLICK!" from the fish room. As quick as I process the fact that it's the mantis, I hear my cat jump down from wherever he was sleeping at the other end of the house and come pounding down the hallway to check it out. I sneak in the room to see and sure enough, Freddie (the cat) is mesmerized by the goings-on in MantisWorld. Crazy cat! LOL! Of my 4 cats, only one seems to even notice the mantis but he is OBSESSED with her! :lol:

 

[floridajhawk]

my dogs love to watch the mantis tank for some reason they love it even more when i throw in her food lol

 

[Uriel]

My cats run back and forth between the tanks of my most active Mantis Shrimp (the O.Scyllarus and the G. Chiraga, remember,I have 6 tanks), watching the 'Mantis-Show'. Those are the two tanks set lowest in the room, and they love them.
One of my cats (Baby Squishy....a massively 'full-figured' tortoise shell) loves Dagon, the O.S. She sits there meowing at him, and he, in tuen, moves right up to the tank wall and gets a good look at her, nose to...er, antennae(???). He did throw out a threat gesture once, raising up like he was saying 'Back Off there, Missy!'.

-Ron

 

[Gonodactylus]

I don't have cats, but I do have several graduate students! (Enough said.) We keep many of our animals in tanks facing the main thoroughfare in the lab. Most stomatopods seem to do best when they have a lot of visual stimulation.

Roy

 

[SDRotary619]

That was my cats best friend until I moved the tank out of the stand. It would paw at it all the time and the mantis would try and smash through the tank at it.

 

[mightymouse]

thats really cool reading all this is making me want a mantis but the only tank i have empty is 2.5 gals and too small for a mantis

 

[rwhhunt]

you might be able to get a small species, Ive heard of them living in such small corridors. I know the wenneras are small (couple inches) they may be small enough, but ask Roy, he always knows best!

 

[Uriel]

you might be able to get a small species, Ive heard of them living in such small corridors. I know the wenneras are small (couple inches) they may be small enough, but ask Roy, he always knows best!

I have an n Wenn in a 1.5 gallon. He seems to be doing fine.

 

[mightymouse]

who is this roy and how can i contact him also where could i find one of these wenneras (sp) i was going to go with a sexy shrimp and yellow goby combo but if i could have a mantis i def would and i can still keep corals like zoos mushrooms and maybe a small frag of capnella or xenia with a mantis right?



*edit* also how would i aqauscape the tank for one of these and this is a mini bow 2.5 not an aga 2.5 if that makes any difference

 

[rwhhunt]

Roy is the mantis expert-he replies frequently on this forum. Wenneras can be found for $50 shipped from TBSaltwater.com in tampa. you will probably have to call-dont think its advertised on the site. I believe mantis are perfectly compatible with corals, the only danger is that they like to rearrange stuff to their likings-but they're pretty good interior decorators... Make sure you build some sort of cave structure (preferably with two openings). dont make the lights tooo bright because when it molts it will signicantly dull in color and vividness. They like rubble lying around (if a smasher-like wenneras) piercers prefer sand substrate. Inside the cave, the best thing to do is put a piece of PVC pipe down (maybe right angle or something) to give it a dark secure burrow. Then just cover the pvc up with LR to hide the unnatural look...
Mine also lived with a orange knobby starfish, no problem at all. I witness the first (and only) confrontation, when the starfish tried to wander into his cave-Two quick whacks and the starfish promptly changed directions. After that the starfish would never Enter the cave, but he was in no harm roaming around the front and on top. Infact, im sad to say Knobs, just died this past weekend (i left town for a week and my water quality deterioted while away) anyways, he got necrosis and didnt pull through (he had recovered once from the same ailment, but I wasnt able to catch in time... Anyways, Boris my peacock was sad when he died, and wouldnt eat for a couple days...i think hes lonely that his only roommate's gone! Now he resides with hundreds of copepods and ampipods running around everywhere...

Boris:

This is TBsaltwater's wennera pic they sent me:

 

[Jace18]

My cats go nuts over my mantis tanks. They even have gone so far as to completely wack over the top of his tank. Light and canopy everything. I had to attach it down or they will do it again.. I even had to lock the cats away form my mangroves they keept pulling them out of the tank and playing with them. The second my mantis starts moving or clicking they are ther watching them. I set up a webcam so i could see who was doing the deed but found it was all of my cats lol.