Positive ID? Video and pictures of what I believe is a Odontodactylus scyllarus

[Kharn]

What's funny to me is now that I know the difference between O. scyllarus and G. smithii, it's super obvious that this isnt a peacock. But when I first started reading into it, I had no idea.

Yeah I made the same mistake with one of mine, originally I would of put money down that Rocky was indeed a G.falcatus due to the insanely similar body colors however once the meral spot was I.D.'d and good ol' Dr. Caldwell chimed in to counter us all in stating that it is infact a G.graphurus.

What struck me the most strange about his comment (although I knew not to question it.) was the fact that I have 2 G.graphurus and there a mating pair that share a similar color tone/pattern COMPLETELY different to Rocky but it just goes to show that coloration interms of I.D. means NOTHING its all in the minor details like the meral spot.

To date all my G.graphurus have proven to be the most inter-active mantis of ALL my stomatopods they actively come out and are always outside there dens looking at something or smashing on something.

 

[Recty]

Mantis shrimp are very uncommon here, this is one of the first I've seen at a LFS. With that said, it sounds like this G. smithii only has another 2 years or so of life in him before he dies of old age, maybe 3, so perhaps when that comes about if I've enjoyed the experience, I'll upgrade to a larger tank and try out a peacock, although from what I'm reading some of the G. are the most entertaining of mantis.

All in all, I'm excited to move forward on this. I enjoyed my little mantis that came in on my live rock, enough so that I've always wanted to have another and now I can dedicate a tank to just keeping one, it should be pretty cool.

 

[Peter T]

Mantis shrimp are very uncommon here, this is one of the first I've seen at a LFS. With that said, it sounds like this G. smithii only has another 2 years or so of life in him before he dies of old age, maybe 3, so perhaps when that comes about if I've enjoyed the experience, I'll upgrade to a larger tank and try out a peacock, although from what I'm reading some of the G. are the most entertaining of mantis.

All in all, I'm excited to move forward on this. I enjoyed my little mantis that came in on my live rock, enough so that I've always wanted to have another and now I can dedicate a tank to just keeping one, it should be pretty cool.

I don't think you will be disappointed. I started off with a mantis only tank with corals, and over time all my tanks became full blown reef tanks that happens to house stomatopods . I definitely cannot see myself ever having a tank without stomatopods anymore.

 

[Recty]

My very first reef tank had 3 mantis Of course, they were hitchhikers that came in on the live rock I ordered!

I did enjoy the little critters, in fact one of them I was able to catch and my brother who lives nearby kept it in a 2.5g aquarium for a while. The other ones I would just hear click away in my tank and eventually I think it dropped down to just one mantis left and within a year that one was dead too.

I look forward to having a specific tank set up just for a mantis. The corals will be nice for some show but the mantis is the reason the tank exists.

 

[Dana42078]

I don't think you will be disappointed. I started off with a mantis only tank with corals, and over time all my tanks became full blown reef tanks that happens to house stomatopods . I definitely cannot see myself ever having a tank without stomatopods anymore.

BINGO. Im pretty much right there with ya.:smokin:

 

[Kharn]

I started to head down that road but reminded myself why I am even in this for the first place!

MANTIS SHRIMPS!

Although there is nothing wrong with coral and mantis at all and I intend to do so in my grand scheme of things to come but initially I lost the plot and things started to become to the point where I needed a lot more things to support then tank to support the coral (rather then the mantis').

In the end all I wanted (which I now know) is corals I can keep with mantis shrimps, in a mantis shrimp designed tank without the need of adding ANYTHING albeit chems/equip.

 

[young doz]

MANY MANY MANY local fish shops will label a mantis shrimp "Peacock" because of a few things.

1/ Its the most commonly spoken of.
2/ Its the most colorful which is why people seek it.

so so true

Peacock mantis it is nice job guys and gals

joke?........


very nice Smithii

 

[Recty]

I started to head down that road but reminded myself why I am even in this for the first place!

MANTIS SHRIMPS!

Although there is nothing wrong with coral and mantis at all and I intend to do so in my grand scheme of things to come but initially I lost the plot and things started to become to the point where I needed a lot more things to support then tank to support the coral (rather then the mantis').

In the end all I wanted (which I now know) is corals I can keep with mantis shrimps, in a mantis shrimp designed tank without the need of adding ANYTHING albeit chems/equip.

Well, thankfully with a 14g PC and LED lit tank, I cant get too crazy with corals. I was really just thinking of some ricordia along the edges and then pulsing xenia or else that green stuff that spreads like wildfire, and nothing else. No SPS, no big LPS, nothing hard to feed at all. Then I can concentrate on having a cool mantis

 

[Recty]

Maybe I'm missing it, but I read through the stickies and searched this part of the forum...

How often should a 2" G. smithii be fed? I read the Dr. saying that mantis wont over eat, they will simply stop feeding if they are full, so it's nice to know I wont OVERFEED him, but I dont want to under feed him either.

Would it be better to feed a small meal every 2-3 days? Or one large meal every 4-5 days? Or what interval? Ideally, I'd like to feed small meals because it has less chance of going to waste and fouling the water quality.

 

[gpx1200]

i think a small meal every 2-3 days is a good rutine a few snails,hermits in the tank makes a good random snack incase they get hungry between feedings.
be carefull just handing them food at the cave door sometimes they just take it and stuff it in the sand then go back for more.

 

[Recty]

Anyone else have any opinions about how often to feed a 2-2.5" G. smithii?

 

[JmartWI]

Don't worry about underfeeding, they won't starve unless they haven't eaten in over a month. I feed my small smithii 2 or 3 times a week.

 

[StephLionfish]

I don't think you will be disappointed. I started off with a mantis only tank with corals, and over time all my tanks became full blown reef tanks that happens to house stomatopods . I definitely cannot see myself ever having a tank without stomatopods anymore.

That's what happened to my mantis tank. Only, mine went from a mantis tank with some caulerpa to a macro tank with a mantis.

I feed my mantis every 3 days.