new mantis

[the_anti_honda]

hey every one i just brought home a new peacock mantis today its about 5 inchs i will post pics asap. i was wondering a few things. i know that they are coral safe i have him in a stocked 20 gallon and i will be either moving him to a 20long or a 5 gallon for just him. this mantis seems to not be interested in fish at all. seems to like to eat cleaner shrimp alot. but i have one purple dotty back that is pretty mean its about 2 inchs long should i be worried? is this my dottybacks last night alive? well if i dont get any replys before tonight i will let you know how this went tomarrow.

thanks in advance

john

p.s the mantis was free from my LFS.

 

[gmcbroom]

Sweet a free mantis the LFS's in my area all seem to charge $30.00 or more for them count yourself lucky. Off topic yes but an adda boy never hurt anyone.

 

[the_anti_honda]

yea i guess it was a sweet find. he had been in there a month or so and eats hermits and small fidlers i guess he eats krill also. nobody wanted him cuz they heard so many horror storys about them killing everything in your tank and cracking your glass. he has not eaten anything live in my tank yet krill seems to do him just fine and he leaves my dottyback alone. wanders all around the tank neer realy hides for long its a great shrimp much more active then most of the mantis i see.

 

[Isaari]

Nothing beats free

Mine loves freeze dried krill and I've never given her anything else. I just toss it on top of the water and she swims out to nab it. She also roams the tank all day, and only goes into hiding for about a week while molting. I was pleasantly surprised about that because from what I read, they hole up a lot.

 

[jjrock]

What a shame to feed it frozen food all the time. One of the most interesting aspec of these creatures is watching them hunt and kill.

I'd rather watch a mantis shrimp clobber and kill a fire shrimp than watch a great white eat a big fat seal!

Just my opinion.

JJ.