mantis growth rate

[Absint Reefer]

I've had a peacock for about 6 months but he has'nt grown yet I'm I doing something wrong? He is in a 20gl long with 3lbs of live rock and some pvc pipe his only tankmate is a chocolate chip star. His diet is made up of fiderler crabs, snails, hermits, guppies, ghost shrimp, and frozen when excepted

 

[zero_one]

growth can is can seem none existant with inverts of all types, the grow when they molt, but only slightly. Large mantids will eat their molt, or barry it out of site. I have a cleaner shimp who I've noticed molts once a month and never seemed to get larger, untill i showed him to freind who just got one, and after seeing my friends its obvious this guy is huge, in cleaner shimp terms. I know I did not buy him that big...

 

[Gonodactylus]

If your O. scyllarus is healthy, not regenerating an appendage and is getting enough of the right diet, an adult should grow 5-7% a molt. Molts should occur every 3-4 months. Most spearers grow much more rapidly than smashers - although some monogamous lysiosquillids are exceptions. Lysiosquilla generally molt every 3-4 months regardles of diet and we have recorded actual shrinkage during molts when food in the field is scarce.

Still, I would say that if you have had an O.s for six months and it has not grown at all, something is not optimum.

Roy

 

[Absint Reefer]

what could I be doing wrong?

 

[Gonodactylus]

How much is your animal eating. While O. s. can go for days without eating, in the field they eat a varied diet and take several items a day. While many stomatopods are fairly picky eaters, that is not true of O. s. I find at a mix of soft and hard items works well - i.e. worms and shrimp add to snails and crabs. Also, after or just before a molt, the animals will usually take soft prey that they don't have to break up.

I usually don't recommend pouring the food to O.S. because of tank maintenance problems, but if you want them to grow and you have a system that can tolerate a heavy bio-load, you can feed them at least twice a day.

Roy

 

[Absint Reefer]

he dose'nt like eating frozen very often so it's kind of hard to feed him sometimes when he runs out of snails in the tank

 

[Gonodactylus]

This is probably the reason he isn't growing. A diet of all snails is a lot of work for not much gain. Keep trying the shrimp even if you have to withhold the snails for awhile.

 

[Absint Reefer]

ok thanks I'll keep trying frozen