Mantis I.D.

Do you know where it is from? It looks like a small species of Gonodactylellus from the Indo-Pacific, but without a close-up of the telson, I can't tell if it is from the Americas (Neogonodactylus) or the Indo-Pacific.

Roy
 
I believe it came from rock I got from Harbor Aquatics and it is Fijii rock. I really dont have a good enough camera to get any closer without losing focus. The mantis is only about an inch long and is bright green everywhere. I can't tell by researching other sites because they don't show juvenile mantis photos. I have a nano set up for it, but I don't know what it is or how big it gets.
 
Joy,

As I suspected, it is a Gonodactylellus. It is not a juvenile. It probably will not get larger than 1.5 inches. Without seeing the telson, I'm only guessing, but it could be G. affinis. Is there any hint of a faint white stripe extending across the anterior part of the telson?



Roy
 
Roy, there is not any white stripe, it is completely green. Is there any information on the above mentioned species other than blueboard.com website? Is it G. Affinis if it only has the stripe visible? If it is not G. Affinis...what other possiblities are there?
 
It is probably not G. affinis if there is no hint of a stripe. Without a close-up of the telson, about all I can tell ou is that it probably lives in shallow water (less than 15 feet) and probably will not get larger than about 35 mm.

Roy
 
would a G.Affinis cause any problems in a reef tank? i know that this sounds rather stupid (on my part) but i'm still cycling my mantis house. i've got my other one in a conainer in my reef tank where he can live until it's settled (that's the brown one i was asking about - still alive & going well)
anyway, the LFS rang me yesterday telling me they'd found a tiny green mantis if i wanted it, naturally i hot-footed it down there. the thing was minute! 15mm long if it was lucky, & that's standing on "tippy-telson" & only 2mm wide, it's pale green with the white stripe.
the reason i want to know if it would cause any problem in the reef tank was that naturally it got out of the container in the reef tank & is now in the tank.
thanx in advance for any thoughts
 
At 15 mm it is about 2-3 months old. Maximum size will be around 28 mm and it will take at least a couple of years - probably longer - to reach that size. It will take only the smallest snails and hermits and mostly eats amphiopods and other tiny in-fauna. I would not worry about it.

Roy
 
excellent!
that's what i thought.
the way that my long nosed hawk fish has cleaned up most of the pistol shrimp population in the tank i was sure that i wouldn't really have to worry about it at all, but Mum was pretty upset that it'd gotten out so i just wanted to make 100% sure. cheers
 
Back
Top