Mantises on Maui and What time is Good?

shinsei

New member
Ok after a crazy, like, er, six months of crap, things are stable and my tank is finally ready...but I have no mantis hehe.

I was wondering if anyone, Dr. Caldwell or anyone, knew of good spots on Maui to fetch mantises, preferrably somewhere where I don't need snorkel gear (I'm a bad swimmer lol). Also, any mantis hunters have any suggestions as to a good time to hunt the critters? Morning, noon, night?

Thanks in advance hehe :D
 
When i was in the keys i saw 3 of them in about the same spot, 10 ft circle, and it was about 6:30. it was about 2- 3ft of water. those r my two cents :mixed:
 
The species that are common in Hawaii and that come out of their burrows and cavities are all diurnal. Don't bother going out at night. Pseudosquilla ciliata is best found on a very low tide. Walk the tide line as the tide turns and starts to come back in. Look in water that is no more than 4-6 inches deep on sandly, rubbly flats. Any tide below low mean water is appropriate. I find the hunting best in the morning fro 6-10 and in the afternoon from 3-6, but this will depend on when low tide occurs.

I'm not sure that Gonodactylaceus has made to to Maui yet. It was introduced into Oahu 50 years ago and is slowly spreading.

Roy
 
I saw 3 P. Cilliata, err Mantis Shrimps, all at the same place. I went serching other places but they were all in a 6ft radius. kinda wierd, i thought they woulda attacked eachother.
 
Ahh much thanks for the replies :) I'll most likely be hitting Kihei/Maalaea this Saturday in the morning, as I think lowtide will be about 1030am and there are supposed to be some nice reef flats around that area (and if not I'll try other weekends at other locales)...

as an aside:
Dr. Caldwell, I was also wondering if you've ever seen a stomatopod that lives primarily in the green seaweeds that float about Hawaii. I ask because many years ago I caught one while catching some small fish with a scoop net; I had caught some seaweed clumps and low and behold there was a beautiful green mantis hiding in there! He never opted to go into a burrow I made for him (PVC pipe) and definitely preferred to run about in the freefloating seaweeds. I believe he was a slasher-type, as the fish began disappearing over the next few weeks hehe. I've never seen one since and was wondering if perhaps he was just a wandering soul who found himself in some seaweed (and made it his home) or if there is a species that primarily does live in the floating weeds in Hawaii.

Again thanks for the replies guys! I'll post pics if I ever catch one of those buggers :)
 
I don't know of any stomatopod that inhabits floating seaweeds. Postlarval Pseudosquilla ciliata will turn emeral green in green seaweeds and they do settle into such structures. If this was a large adult - 2 or 3 inches - I doubt that it grew up their, but it could have entered a clump in shallow water and then gone for the ride. P. ciliata don't always like PVC and will hang out in clumps of alage in an aquarium.

Roy
 
Man, I seriously suck LOL...I spent 6 hours today traversing maui from 8am till 2pm, drove from Maalaea (no mantises :(), to Paia/Hookipa/um..just past Hookipa, and then Naska/Sprecklesville. Nadda :(

There were a few holes in the location past Hookipa, nice, nice tidepools there, but upon my prodding and digging I didn't find anyone home nor did I find a backup/secondary hole to fiddle with...didn't have a wire or any bait, so I'll bring that next time (it's very windy, too, so finding them is even more arduous with all the ripples in the water). Other than that though, I haven't seen hide nor dactyl of any mantises here on Maui...*sigh* Guess I'll just keep trying in different locations...perhaps more towards the Camp Maluhia side of the island..

Again thanks for the pointers...Benthic, if worse comes to worse, care to do some mantis fishing for hire? :cool: :D
 
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