post your pics here

[cro117]

hi, i am particularly interested in any pic out there of Neogonodactylus wennerae. if anyone has any they'd like to post i would be appriciative.

 

[Codeman00]

This N.Wennerae came in DOA from TBS.com

The next two pictures are of "Pete", my N. Wennerae from TBS.com

This is my friends' N. Wennerae aka "Gringo"

 

[Frozen Roadkill]

Sorry these pics stink.

This is Ty, my Wennerae from TBS. I asked for a red mantis is possible, but I got Ty. Haha. Now, after his 3rd molt, he is more purply than in these pictures with really light pink smashers.

 

[cro117]

thank you for the pics. n. wennerae realy does come in many color variations. i hope there are more pics out there.

 

[Flusher]

Man, N. wennerae can look a lot like G. smithii. Here's a couple picts of my smithii:

 

[cro117]

now i think i might be interested in a smithii. any pics off smaller species would be great at this point, not just wanerea.

thanks for all the pics so far, cro.

 

[Flusher]

I was hoping for a wennerae before I found a smithii. Honestly, I would have been happy with any small type of smasher mantis after waiting three months to get one. There are a few different types.

 

[Codeman00]

Good luck finding a smithii. I already went down that route and after a few weeks of waiting, I settled for a N. Wennerae. The LFS hasn't caught on that Mantis shrimps are in demand...many of them don't even take the time to ID them. You can get a sure thing N. Wenn from TBS.com..but you will have to look hard for a smithii.

Pete has been great though..he's always active building and exploring the tank every day and night. I couldn't ask for anything more.

 

[iCam]

Can any of you post a little about your mantis set up? I've been thinking about maybe setting up an N. wennerae tank, unless I can find something else in Houston that stays in the same size range.

 

[Flusher]

I've got a 6 gallon cube tank that I made out of 1/4" glass. Behind it is a 2 gallon sump that holds the heater and powerhead, and eventually a nano skimmer (it's apparently in the mail...). There's a 2" deep fine aragonite sandbed, though in hindsight I wish I'd put in a coarser grade of aragonite. I had about 10 lb. of rock, but I'm down to just one 5 lb. rock in the middle now; the tank was too cluttered. I actually just pulled out most of the rock today. The rock is covered with aipstasia, and I have chaeto along the back wall. Two Coralife 20W 50/50 bulbs light this sucker up pretty good. I plan to add more rubble to the tank so my mantis can use it to build a little cave.

 

[iCam]

Thanks. Do you have any problems with salinity or temperature swings?

 

[Flusher]

The salinity seems pretty stable. I top up the tank with distilled water a couple times a week. I'm sure the temperature fluctuates a bit. I pulled out the floating thermometer a couple weeks ago, and a digital thermometer is in the mail (with the skimmer).

I found that with most of my tanks, the temperature usually stays pretty stable in the winter when the room temperature is less than the tank temperature. In the summer, unless the A/C is on, my tanks tend to heat up quite a bit. I can't really do much about that, so I stopped worrying about it a couple summers ago.

 

[iCam]

Oh yes, victim to the great Canadian heat

Salinity and heat are the two things I am most worried about in a smaller tank. I tend to keep the apartment cooler,though, so hopefully it would be no problem.

 

[Flusher]

I'm still not sure what's worse, the harsh Canadian winters or the random summer heatwaves...

I used to have a fairly big freshwater tank rack rigged up with about 150-175 gallons of water running through it. Even that would succumb to excessive heat in the summertime.