New Mantis ID help please

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Hi all,
Just picked this one up from my LFS thought it might be a
Gonodactylus platysoma.

So far so good this little guy has been working really hard at his/her new home.

The store also had some huge Peacocks and a great looking Zebra.

I was also wondering if a piece of PVC would be better for him in the long run.

Thanks
T.G.

 

[justinl]

gorgeous mantis mp! yup, Id agree that that is a G. platysoma.

If you like the pvc burrows, you can just get a length of it from any hardware store. try to get black pvc as it doesnt reflect light like the white does. shape? well if you can manage to make it a U shape with two exits that would probably be best. only have the diameter of the stuff slightly wider than the width of the mantis.

if you dont get a pvc burrow, dont worry. it will make a home in the rock. personally im not really a fan of the pvc in my tank so i let my mantis just burrow into the rock. doesnt really matter which you choose.

 

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Thanks for the help.

He is already moved into a corner next to my Rio pump that I have in there for extra flow.

He seems to like Frozen Mysis I will keep trying to see what else he likes other then my snails.

He already made a snack out of a Turbo snail.

TG

 

[DanInSD]

Try assorted frozen seafood (a "human food" mix, e.g. from Trader Joe's or the like). One $5 package lasts me months. Look for "seafood stew mix" or something like that, with shrimp, scallop, squid, etc. Carve off a "reasonable-sized" piece (pea-sized for a small mantis, scale up for a bigger one). Offer on a feeding stick (bamboo skewer works fine here). Rotate the foods so he gets a little of everything. I feed my mantis every other day.

Don't worry if your mantis doesn't accept all foods right away. Let it go hungry for a few days. It'll be fine.

Careful with overfeeding. The mantis will bury excess food, to the significant detriment of your water quality. Might want to toss in some nassarius snails for sand-cleanup duty...

Dan