My first Mantis

[Malign Reefer]

I finally purchased my first Mantis and man is he/she cool and all I know is he hates rocks and snails . I have been into the reef hobby for a number of years and have a very successful 120g mixed reef and was getting a little bored with it as of yesterday afternoon. So, I went to my LFS looking for something new and exciting for the reef tank to get me back in the mood when I come across and tiny bright green Mantis just sitting there by him/her self. So I look and look at it and anm thinking this guy would be awesome in my 6 moth old 60g frag tank that has about 7 inches of sand in it and no frags by the way. The guy catches the little fella and places him a back for me and now I can actually see how big he really is, only about 1 inch and very bright green. I take him home and acclimate him just how I have been for years and I place him the tank and he/she completely disappears from sight all together and does so for a couple of hours. The guy at the fish store said he would not eat for a day or two but I didn't think this to be true so I grabbed a nice sized piece if fresh squid and put it on a wood skewer and put it near him/her, not even 2 seconds later and the little guy grabbed it off the skewer before I can even blink and retreated to his/her lair to consume all of the squid. Whoo Hoo, he ate right off the bat"¦ Then he started to beat the crap out of the piece of live rock he was hiding in and poking his head out. I think he might be happy.

I have no idea what kind of Mantis I have because it was not posted on the tank at the LFS and the guy had no idea.

I will post a pic up of it and maybe someone can help me with am I.D.

Any tips on how to care for these guys that's not posted in here would be great.

Thanks,
John

 

[Malign Reefer]

Also, what is a good little feeder fish for this little guy/gal.

 

[Jacwil]

Sounds like you have a smasher if it was bashing on the rock, thus a feeder fish may not be necessarily on the menu lol.

Escargot and crab!

 

[Malign Reefer]

He loves that squid as well, I need to re-aquascape the tank so nothing falls or hurts him.

 

[Malign Reefer]

I have him/her in a tank with a large protein skimmer, large refugium, bio-pellets, carbon and GFO reactor and wave pumps. What is necessary and what do I not need. Like I said this was a frag tank with a 6-7 inch sand bed.

Thanks
~John

 

[Ehudd]

Picture

 

[Malign Reefer]

Picture

I wish I could get one, he stays in hiding when I'm around the tank.

 

[Malign Reefer]

What are you guys running for equipment on your Mantis setup's?

Mine is a frag tank I setup and never used for frags. Its a 60g display tank with a 30g sump refugium, GFO/Carbon, Bio-ball reactor and two power heads in the tank for water movement.

I have LED's on the tank, I heard they like low light, is this correct?

And what kind of water flow do the like?

What do I need and not need to keep this little guy healthy and happy?

Thanks much,
John

 

[Malign Reefer]

I have also found a name for him "The Violator"

 

[TundraGuy]

Pix?

 

[Malign Reefer]

Pix?

I still can't get a good view of him, I'm not going to feed him today and see if he comes out to hunt for food.

 

[Jacwil]

Without identifying what species you have, it is difficult to point you in the proper direction in fulfilling its requirements.

 

[Malign Reefer]

Without identifying what species you have, it is difficult to point you in the proper direction in fulfilling its requirements.

I hear you, I just need to get the little guy in the open.

 

[Malign Reefer]

 

[Malign Reefer]

The one above is the best I can get right now, he/she was posing for just a brief second long enough to get a crappy cell phone pic.

 

[Malign Reefer]

So I called my LFS back and asked the owner if he could look on his shipping/order/receiving form and tell me what type/genus my little guy is. The owner told me the only thing he had on paper was that he/she was a "Red Mantis" and that's all he could say.

I know it's a crappy picture and I will get better ones but does anyone have an idea on this little one?

Thanks,
~John

 

[Malign Reefer]

Can you over feed a mantis? Cuz my little guy is always hungry, he is eating pieces of squid almost half his size and still wants more. I have been feeding him at the same time everyday, should I only feed every other day or ?

Thanks
~John

 

[Kharn]

Stomatopods typically have ferocious appetites in the wild they have been observed feeding 5x a day for smaller portions of food and they likely snack on other even smaller things as well however if a stomatopod can tackle a large prey item its own size or bigger, that will give it enough food, for that day .

They don't eat eat eat eat, they do stop when there not hungry, its been my experience that they do not bury there uneaten food in the aquarium but discard it on the surface away from there cavity, they may go back to it if its not removed and munch on it more.

There very clean animals

 

[The Mike]

its been my experience that they do not bury there uneaten food in the aquarium but discard it on the surface away from there cavity, they may go back to it if its not removed and munch on it more.

There very clean animals :d

+1

 

[Kharn]

The whole side of them not burying food in an aquarium like they have been recorded doing in the wild might be a direct relation to there intelligence as well .

It's as if the stomatopod knows that more food is coming so no need to store what isn't eaten and it's like he knows that the giant hand will remove what I put up to be removed, this is specific to my spearers mostly because if any of my species would bury food, its going to be the spearers...