My new mantis

[Pea-brain]

Hi. Thought I'd just show offmy new mantis shrimp that I picked up in conn. I got it and held it in a 1/2 filled 10 gallon with some sand, a powerhead and a heater. I did a 8 cup water change eveyday. I also made the biggest mistake so far. I miss-mixed salt at a SG. of 1.014. He stayed in it for 3 days. Luckily I realized my mistake (I thought that I had mixed it correctly and thought the hydrometer broke) and fixed it. Only one thing died the whole time. And that was a emerald crab the mantis killed first he took a claw, then a front leg, then another claw and another front leg. It died overnight from the injuries. It was cool. The mantis is a big guy, definately a he. I think he is a N. wennerae, but He could be a chiragra. I compared the telson and it looked more like a wennerae telson. Nice white meral spot, a white streak down it's "back" and pink rapts. a little less than 3" and prettty beat up too (gashes and gouges all around including one on each rapt appendage. not bad enough to warrant removing, but he looks like he got in a fight and both mantises hit eachother in the rapt at the same time) He is in holding in that critter carrier inside my ten until sunday when I can get a stand to put another ten next to it. Knives smells the new guy and is hiding in his burrow. won't come out more than an inch. I put the biggest suitable size LR in there that I have along with a small piece of PVC. For size comparison the PVC is just a bit bigger than 3". He is currently desperately trying to kill the damsel through the plastic even though he just ate. Guess no fish in the new tank either....

Here are some pics:

A pic of him hanging upside down:

A pic of him on the PVC pipe in the critter carrier:

some pics of him swimming:

Him peering out:

OK I'm done annoying you. You can leave now

 

[Pea-brain]

And just got the perfect pic of his meral spots while he was eating. It is cool how they kind of indent....

 

[Hutton]

G. chiragra

 

[Pea-brain]

Hmmm I was afraid so.......Oh well I'll wait and see if he is interactive and such once I give him a good rock to make a burrow.....I hope so cause if he really is a G. chiragra then he will be a pretty boring except for feeding time........

 

[Ab3]

WHATS A SMALL MANTIS THATS ACTIVE?

 

[Pea-brain]

He is in his new tank. I've only filled it half way so far. I used water from my P. ciliata tank to fill it. Now my P. ciliata tank is only 3/4 full and I need to mix some more water......I used about 2 cups of sand from the other tank and 3 Live rocks, one of which is big enough to burrow in. Bare bones for the moment. Only light is room lighting and some light from the window. Just got a heater and powerhead in there now. Sand still hasn't settled but when it does I will get pics....

 

[Hutton]

He looks nice. Even if he isnt the most active mantis, he is still cool because chiragras are hard hitters. Maybe put a little rock crab in there for him to "play" with.

 

[Pea-brain]

Hopefully. if I'm real lucky I'll get one of those mantises that act outside of their species usual behavior. Like that G. Platysoma someone had that acted unusually outgoing.....Then I'll have an active mantis that is pound for pound the toughest out there...and 'll have to go find myself a acrylic just incase.....But that is a pretty rare chiragra, so I don't expect any miracles.

 

[medellia]

chiragra are cool mantids even though they aren't the most outgoing. i usually just see mine peeking out of her burrow every once in a while, but she more than makes up for it with a savage display at feeding time. she is by far the most brutal of my mantids, and gets the most excited about food. i feed her mostly live food for that reason--it is just too fun to watch. my others usually let the cleanup crew wander around for at least a couple days before it gradually disappears, but i have to feed the chiragra one snail at a time, or she will drag them all into her burrow and bash them all at once!
she definitely prefers snails to hermits, though. and after she has split the snail open, she keeps on bashing the shell up into dust-fine particles. although occasionally she will keep a shell around for building purposes.
she definitely has a lot of personality! i also hear her clicking away at the rock all the time, more so in the morning and the evening. i have a single huge piece of live rock in her tank, and it pretty much fills up the entire 5 gal hex. it had a few little caves in it to start with, which was why i thought it would make a cool mantis home. but now, a couple months later, she has pretty much hollowed out the entire rock, and has about a dozen large exits and entrances to her den. so she has turned a pretty much solid piece of rock into something that looks like swiss cheese. and she is still bashing away at it, too!
so i think you will like the chiragra--they are cool and super evil!

 

[Pea-brain]

Lets hope so. I know this about it now: it doesn't like freeze dried krill, it can smash a hermit out of a freshwater snail shell pretty easily, will hit most stick-like objects put near it, and it does the same thing my P. ciliata does with unused food. It holds onto it and moves around alot until I come up then rears up and chucks the uneaten food at me. It will do that several times until I take it out or it gets bored just like my ciliata. Of course that was in the critter carrier. We'll see how it gets once it starts hammering away at its new rocks. But has anyone else noticed this behavior in their mantises? I thought for a moment it might be behavioral, but then realized their probly aren't alot of 6' tall relatively hairless lanky mammals cleaning up stuff at the bottom of the ocean....lol.

 

[deboM3]

Nice! Looks just my g. chigara. Definitly a hard hitter although i hardly ever see mine...

 

[infalible-one]

looks nice dan, but how are you going to breed it? you were gonna get a G. smithii, but chiragra aren't usualy active.

 

[Pea-brain]

Don't need to breed it. No plans to. I just got one. I still have plenty of room for a few more ten gallons......if I get rid of my bed