I have had one from liveaquaria for 2 weeks and to be honest I am somewhat disappointed. I am far from an expert on the different species, but I ordered one thinking it would be a G. Graphurus and I don't think it is what I received. It is not lime green mixed with brown, not colorful, not 3 inches, and no orange spots.
Basically when I first found out liveaquaria had them and that the one in the picture looked possibly like a G. Graphurus and that it would be a good species for my new tank (daylight active, aggressive, and not as sensitive to bright light) I emailed them to confirm that it was collected in the indo pacific and had orange meral spots like G. graphurus. The email I received back from them confirmed this, so I decided to order one thinking that once liveaquaria runs out of them it could be quite awhile before they come back in stock.
Anyway, what I recieved is a really small very very dark green almost black mantis with off white meral(?) spots (the spots on the smashers). He (she) is no more than an inch and a half big even though their ad says 3 inches approximate size.
So far in 2 weeks I have only seen it for less than 2 minutes total. I see it about every 2-3 days (I unsuccessfully try to feed it more often than this) when I put frozen krill on a skewer. It comes out, beats up the krill and the skewer, and takes off with the krill with a nice little burnout back to his cave.
I still think he is neat and will be setting up a 10 gallon for him but he is not active enough right now to put in the 36 gallon I had been preparing for him at my office.
I have tried really hard to get some pics for an ID, but I cant seem to get the pics to come out at all. They are either too blurry, too small, or my knee.
RWH, I asked liveaquaria to hold him for me also while my tank cycles and they refused. That is strange that you got a different answer. Also, how is the new clown doing in with your peacock? What other tankmates do you have?
I hope this helps, Allen
