Mantis not building!!!

[ADHybrid]

I have provided my mantis with tons of shells and small chucks of liverock rubble and he still doens't seem to be building!! He just stayes in this small cave in this liverock and comes out ocasionsally to eat and explore but still refuses to build even 1 single cave or wall....any suggestions??

 

[kul976]

i don't think there's anything wrong with him...
i've had my mantis for a month or so now and he never builds
either.. the only thing he does is move the sand from inside his
live rock cave and push it towards the entrance to make it smaller.. and i've only seen him come out of the cave briefly twice since i got him...

 

[ISFRAEL]

ive had mantis that live in rock and sand burrows.
here is how i have set up my tanks and i have found it the best methood of getting a mantis living where its visible.

i go and buy the largest flattest piece of ive rock i can find and i drill a hole through it a little larger than the mantis i intend to keep. i then lay the rock flat on my 6" marble dust substrate and i only have that one piece of rock in the tank when i introduce the mantis. i have found that a mantis in a new tank will look for a structure and run and hide so i wait for it to get near the rock and then i slowly nudge it towards the hole i made. when i see the hole it usually dives right in and then i let it settle down and feed it daily but only if its in it new hole. once its settled and its always in it hole i then start to ad the rest of the rock to make the tank look nice. the mantis is usually so at home in its new hole that it will stay there and you will be able to see it whenever you want to. i find that the mantis will then start to hollow out under the rock until it has a multi entranced mansion.

whew! what a long reply

 

[ADHybrid]

thanx for the replies. I think that Max (my friends named my mantis) is quite confortable in his home and always stays in the one whole. I still dont think that he is improving his home but maybe he is just too lazy (like his owner )!

 

[Gonodactylus]

There are species differences that you need to consider. Most Neogonodactylus and Gonodactylus do not build burrows. They live in rock cavities which they prefer. If no cavity is available, they will excavate under a rock, but that is about it. These animals will modidfy the entrance of their cavities and will close the entrance at night using small rocks and shell, but don't expect major construction.

On the other hand, Odontodactyulus typically live in u-shaped burrows which they line with rubble. They are excellent builders.

Most spearers burrow, but few construct burrows with rocks or shells.

Roy

 

[ADHybrid]

Thanx for the info Roy! Well, my Mantis is a smasher and I dont know exactly what kind of mantis I got but I will try and get some pix soon. This is its description.

Olive green
body segmented with orange lines
pink and blue smasher and apendages
rock dweller

 

[Gonodactylus]

All stomatopods have a saddle shaped depression on the inside of the raptorial (striking) appendage. In many species, the "meral spot" is white, but in some species it is colored - purple, orange, yellow, blue, red, etc.) The color is often diagnostic of the species, so if you can get a look at the color of the meral spots, that will help a lot in the identification.

Roy

 

[ADHybrid]

Roy,

My Mantis's "meral spot" is a dark blue. At first I thought it was black but when I coaxed it closer to the glass with some food I found that they were blue. Another marking that I thought might be helpfull is its 2 red "eye" markings on its tail. I assume these are defensive markings used to fool predators but i wasn't sure if only certain species had these. Hope this helps out

 

[Gonodactylus]

You have a Gonodactylus smithii. This species is common on reef flats from Guam to the Indian Ocean. It study them on Lizard Island, N. Queensland. They reach a maximum size of around 9 cm and are perhaps the showiest of all stomatopods. They certainly threaten more than any other species I know. The "eyespots" are used in both intraspecific signalling and species recognition as well as in threat. The red spots at the base of the uropods are unusual and this is the only species that I know that has them. They are probably used in species recognition.

G. smithii is perhaps my favorite stomatopod to keep in an aquarium. Enjoy.

Roy

 

[ADHybrid]

Roy,


Wow....you know a lot about these little guys. Are you a Marine Biologist?? Anyways, I really wanna know more about the species of mantis I have and what its natural habitat is like so I can closely reconstruct it in my aquarium. Do you have any info or know of any place where I can start lookin? The library in our town is quite old and the stuff there is SOOOOO out of date! Internet sites perhaps? Well, its been nice talkin with ya. Its always fun to talk to people who can teach you stuff

 

[ADHybrid]

"Contributed by Dr. Roy Caldwell
Department of Integrative Biology
University of California at Berkeley"





:eek2: WOOOOOOW!!! I look up Gonodactylus smithii and YOU pop up every single time. LOL, I wanted to go to Berkeley all my life but my grades wont permit it (to bad it dont accept on SAT 9 test scores ). Anyways, do you have any works that I can study?? I would be honored!!:idea:

 

[Gonodactylus]

One of my first popular articles on stomatopods was for Scientific American in 1976 (I think). Most libraries should have that journal. If you can find that article on stomatopods, you might enjoy it.

G. smithii generally live in shallow water, although we occasionally collect them down to 60 feet. Aside from threatening a lot, perhaps the most unusual aspect of this species is the fact that it does not couple copulation with female egg production. They are one of the few gonodactylids that will mate any time in the reproductive cycle. I have even seen females carrying eggs mate.

Roy

 

[mantisshrimp]

Roy,can you tell me more about Gonodactylus chiragra?

 

[Gonodactylus]

G. chiragra is a common smashing gonodactylid found throughout the Indo-Pacific. It can be very common on reef flats in lives as high in the intertidal as any stomatopod I know - often up to near mid-water line. Generally they prefer cavities in hard substrate such as shale and beach rock and don't seem to like live coral. They are dirunal and generally forage for only a few minutes as the tide comes in or goes out and the water is only a few centimeters deep. At this time you can see them darting about, often going several meters from their cavity to collect large snails and hermit crabs - there normal food. Gram for gram, they are probably the most powerful stomatopod out there.

If you have not noticed, most populations are sexual color dimorphic. Females are light olive green, males a dark brownish green. However, I have seen populations where males and females look alike.

Roy