My new mantis arrived!

[Frostyeel]

I ordered an orange mantis from Caribbean Fish and More (http://stores.ebay.com/Caribbean-Fish-and-More) on tuesday and it arrived this morning.

I'm pretty sure that its a she, because of her flat belly in the 5th picture and I'm pretty sure that she is a Neogonodactylus oerstedii because the store calls their mantises oerstedii (and I think a member here helped them identify them as oerstediis) and in the 6th picture you can see the purple meral spots. I'm going to try and feed her soon, but I wanted to let her get settled in the aquarium a little first. Now, here are the pictures:

The packaging she came in
post

Size comparison, my finger is a little closer than the mantis, but not much. I did a rough measure and she is 2" long.

Here is the clearest pic I have, from when I was aclimatizing.

Naughty pic, shows why I think she is a female.

And her in a hole in a rock in the tank. The only time I was able to see her meral spots clearly.

And a picture of the whole tank. She is in a tunnel in the rounder rock to the far right, as shown by my crude illustration.

In the last picture you can also see the balloon molly that has been living in the tank for the last 2 weeks. It is near the surface of the water.

I am currently thinking of a good name, and in 5 days (on my birthday) I will get a lid and light for the tank. In fact, the box is in the same room as me right now, but I can wait.

 

[Flusher]

Ha ha! Awesome illustration.

That's a pretty cool little mantis and mantis tank. It looks like there's a lot of rock for the mantis to poke around in.

 

[jbplay]

I helped identify them as Oerstedii from Dr. Roy's list and he confirmed the one I received was an Oerstedii. Yours looks a lot like the pictures on his site. Mine is green and after a week of shyness has become the dominant creature in her 7g world. She's out a lot and sometimes like's to show that she's the boss by whacking pieces of gravel. Last night she took her first piece of food(silverside) from a bamboo skewer. It looks like you've set yours up in plush digs, so have fun!

 

[Bebo77]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7573448#post7573448 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Flusher
Ha ha! Awesome illustration.

yeah that is great... lol:lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[Frostyeel]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7573448#post7573448 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Flusher
Ha ha! Awesome illustration.

Thanks, I try my best.

I also offered him a little peice of shrimp and he seemed happy to take it.

 

[deadly_damsel]

Can anybody help me? My mantis is just sitting outside of her cave leaned against the rock not moving, I tried nudging her with the long tweezers I used to feed her and she moved a little but didn't want to go anywhere and seemed to be holding on to the rock. She has seemed health enough before this, what could be wrong? Would it help to do a quick water change or should I just wait to see what happens? I'm a little worried because I tried to have another mantis 2 weeks ago that died less than a day after I got him. I thought that he had died because the tank wasn't really ready yet and he had a little bit of shell disease, but this girl is acting similar. Help?

 

[Frostyeel]

Wait, that ^^^ was me, sorry. Didn't realize that my sister had made an RC account and was logged on on this computer. Anybody know what could be wrong?

 

[Frostyeel]

Oh no, I think I might know what I did. I have been using a flashlight to look at the mantis in her cave to make sure that she was doing okay, and now she is acting like she can't see anything. She tried swimming around but just bumped into stuff and ended up lying on her back. She managed to find her way back into her cave but is lying on her back with her telson sticking out. My first mantis that died lay on its back too, because it seemed to be paralyzed or it didn't have enough strength to do anything other than flap its swimmer fins. My first thought that this was the same thing, before I thought of how I might have blinded her. While she was outside she was grabbing grains of sand and rolling them over in her arms, but she just dropped them back down. Any help would be great!

 

[Frostyeel]

Oh, I also decided that unless anyone here advises it I'm just going to try not to do anything, because I will probably just make the situation worse. I checked on her again and it looks more like she can't use her walking legs, she is on her back but rolled so that her head is sticking up. She can still smash because I heard her do it once loudly when I tried to see if she was alive.

 

[Frostyeel]

Okay, well after she found her way back into her cave I didn't see her again for a while. When I finally did she was way out on the sand away from the rocks on her back, just like my last mantis. When I told my dad he thought to actually do something, unlike stupid me. The only test kits we have are phostphates and nitrates, so I tested nitrates and it was between 50 and 100 ppm. My dad found a little in tank cage in our garage and I got the mantis out of her ten gallon and put her in the cage in the sump of the 180g. Right now she is still laying on her back but i'm just seeing if she might recover. There is definitely something wrong with the water/aquarium, so if she dies my dad suggested I get a cleaner shrimp or something to see if the water is toxic to all inverts, or at least shrimp, because the molly is doing fine. I just posted all these events in episodes so incase someone who knows what could have caused this comes along they could help me.

 

[Thurge]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7580467#post7580467 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Frostyeel
so I tested nitrates and it was between 50 and 100 ppm.

Your filtration doesn't look ready.
First thing I would do before I put another animal in that tank is get some proper test kits (Ammonia, Nitrite, Alkalinity, Ph) so that you add animals knowing the water water is being filtered properly, not in the HOPES that the tank is ready.
Second thing I would do is not add anything when my Nitrates are over 50.

Keep an eye on your mantis in your 180, dead shrimp can foul a tank pretty quickly....

 

[Flusher]

How's the mantis holding up?

I agree with Thurge. If you have any detectable ammonia or nitrite at all, your tank hasn't cycled. There needs to be a food source in the tank to cycle it. El cheapo crabs and snails should do the trick. If they live or die, they help cycle the tank. If they live, they help feed the mantis.

 

[Frostyeel]

Well, the mantis is still alive but she doesn't look good. She is just alive enough that she is able to flap her swimming fins and can move her arms a bit. I don't think that the current in the sump could be making her move like that, because when I watched her she would stop moving, then start moving and stop, and the current is pretty steady. This also just makes me feel like a dumb*** because maybe if I had moved her our of the tank earlier and aclimated her to the 180 tank water she would be doing better.

Yesterday I did a 95% water change, and the water did look pretty gross, very green and brown once it was in a bucket. I also tried to lightly rinse off the rock in the old water and I stirred up the sandbed a little, hopefully this will all help. I need to get some more test kits so that I know when it will be safe to try getting another mantis, I don't want this to happen again. Sometime today I will test nitrates again.

Lessons learned from this tank so far:
1. Let my tank cycle.
2. Test the water so I don't have to wonder if it is done cycling.
3. Don't buy a sick looking animal. (first mantis had some shell rot)
4. Don't overfeed. (I think uneaten flake food added to this problem)
5. If anything is wrong do a water change! Now, quick!
6. Do water changes frequently anyway to prevent things from going wrong.
7. Rinse out new sand. (Doesn't seem relevant, but my mom thinks this caused a problem and I will do it anyway)
8. A small tank is going to require more care and more testing.
9. Not everything is as tough as a molly.

 

[psychodave]

aww man, good luck. I hope your able to save her

 

[Frostyeel]

Poor girl finally passed away earlier today. She managed to hold on for a day and a half on the verge of dieing, I'm impressed at how hardy mantises are but at the same time that just means that my tank was all the worse. I tested the nitrates again and they were only around 20 this time. I would like to get a pepermint shrimp for the tank to eat the aiptasia but I read they need pretty good water conditions, so I guess I will just get some test kits, and add some hardier crabs or shrimp once the tank is done cycling, maybe a pepermint shrimp later, and once I am tired of these shrimps/crabs I will get another mantis. I don't want to waste the life of another mantis for no reason so I'm only going to get another when the tank is really ready and it is safe.

 

[Salty Bginners]

good call and good luck...sorry bout the loss.

 

[dantodd]

First test your water for copper, you LFS can test it for you if you can't get the kit. . If there is no copper let the tank sit for a month with no more animals and no water changes. If there is copper, make the tank your hospital tank and get a new one for your mantis. Toss the sand and rocks if there's copper.

After that much time check ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates. Feed the molly as little as possible, even better, pull it out. After a month you should have no detectable ammonia or nitrites