Well I just acclimated my new Smithii and when I dropped him in he started swimming all over the place but 5 minutes later he is laying by a rock upside down. Is this normal behavior when you just introduce them? I acclimated him for 2 hours so I know he adjusted to my params. During acclimation he wasnt laying on his back or anything so I am not sure what to think. I wasnt here when my last mantis was put in so I am not sure if this is normal or not.
New Mantis, Is this normal???
- Thread starter Lehman
- Start date
Aqua_expert19
New member
any copper?
4 hours later and he has moved off his back to on his side. Still moving his swimmerettes around though. I got 4 things from blue zoo today and the mantis shrimp was actually acclimating the longest. The pistol shrimp is fine, he has already rearranged the sand in his tank and as a burrow. The goby is fine although he didnt pairup with my pistol right away so hopefully he will along the line somewhere. The clownfish is also doing great so I am not sure what went wrong with mantis 
. No copper has been run through the tank and it has had stable params for a couple weeks now after the cycle. I guess all I can do is keep my fingers crossed and hope the only dead thing I see in the tank tomorrow is some hermits or snails. I did get a picture of him while I was acclimating him and I will post it if he ends up pulling through.
. No copper has been run through the tank and it has had stable params for a couple weeks now after the cycle. I guess all I can do is keep my fingers crossed and hope the only dead thing I see in the tank tomorrow is some hermits or snails. I did get a picture of him while I was acclimating him and I will post it if he ends up pulling through.Good news! Just took a sneak peek at my mantis and he is not laying on his back anymore and he is moving around a little bit. Hes not active or anything hes in the same spot he was but I assume it is a good sign that he is up and turned around and glared at me when I glanced at him from the side. I am going to keep the lights off for the rest of the night and hopefully everything will be alright in the morning.
Aqua_expert19
New member
grats
What are you using to test salinity? I just lost a cleaner shrimp after one night because my plastic hydrometer was off by .005 vs the glass type hydrometer. I took my water to the LFS to get it tested (wanted to make sure my kit was reading correctly) and all was well except the 1.018 salinity. I have now purchased a refractometer too...this hobby sucks sometimes
Yeh I am using a plastic hydrometer but and all my water tests have been pretty consistent everytime I add the salt in my mix. I also tested the water that it shipped in and it read 1.022 where my water was reading a hair over 1.023. I will take my water to the lfs to be sure but I think I am alright since it read really close with blue zoo's water.
Morning Update:
Mantis is nowere to be found. Last night he was on his feet and moving a little bit though so I think he pulled through. Im pretty sure I know where he is so id rather not disturb him if he is still in stress. If I dont see him in a day or two or seen that hes moved sand etc Ill probably check under the rock to see if hes alive under the rock. I assume he is alive though since he moved to the other side of the tank. No sand is dugout around my rocks as far as I can see so the only place he can be is this space thats between two of my stacked rocks but it very dark and hard to see. Id often see y emerald crab going in and out from that area but I havent seen him today hehe. Its only a 12g tank with 12lbs of lr (4 rocks total) so there arent many places he could hide if he hasnt burrowed.
Mantis is nowere to be found. Last night he was on his feet and moving a little bit though so I think he pulled through. Im pretty sure I know where he is so id rather not disturb him if he is still in stress. If I dont see him in a day or two or seen that hes moved sand etc Ill probably check under the rock to see if hes alive under the rock. I assume he is alive though since he moved to the other side of the tank. No sand is dugout around my rocks as far as I can see so the only place he can be is this space thats between two of my stacked rocks but it very dark and hard to see. Id often see y emerald crab going in and out from that area but I havent seen him today hehe. Its only a 12g tank with 12lbs of lr (4 rocks total) so there arent many places he could hide if he hasnt burrowed.
