pounding -> molt?

soyu22

New member
Hello,

I've had my O. scyllarus for a few months now and he eats well and has yet to molt. He lives in a ten gallon glass tank that is split with a smaller mantis. I've given him a plastic tube to hide in which he has began pounding on often during the day. Normally he never hits it, but now he is snapping at it about 5 times in a row every hour! This has been going on for 2 days straight...His tube is deep enough that he can go all the way in and not be seen, but open enough that it's probably not pitch black at the end. Do you think he's about to molt and may be trying to increase his hiding area?
That's my guess...
Unfortunately he has the Shell Disease Gonodactylus mentioned, and it's been getting worse and worse. He came with the beginning of the disease from FFexpress. I hope he can survive the molt. He also refuses to eat anything. He just pushes it away with his smasher...This is a male.

I'll try to attach a pic. pic was too large

-sean
 
I just started reading this forum recently. What is this shell disease and what are the symptoms? My O. scyllarus looks perfectly healthy, but I'd like to know more. Can you tell me the name of the thread it was in?

Jennifer
 
Molted!

Molted!

Hey,

I came home yesterday and the mantis had molted! and he was alive! His smasher was still there and his other smasher had grown some more (as it was regenerating when I got him).
The sad part is that the "shell disease" is probably still there. I thought he would be rid of it when he molted? There seems to be the white spots on his back still, but it does not look as nearly as bad as before. Are these just scars or will the disease begin to spread again? There must be some way to cure it?

jennifer,
The info I got about the "shell disease" is from Gonodactylus. I'm not sure if he mentioned it in a posting, but I emailed him once before and from the way I described it, he thinks it is shell disease. He says it is somewhat common in O. scyllarus, and also in crabs and such...I first noticed small blotchy white discolorations on my mantis when I got him, and thought nothing of it...but slowly week after week, the white discoloration spread and started to have blackish streaks, and also the shell itself began to be more bumpby, and rippled...you could tell that something was almost eating away at his shell. It also started to form separate patches near his head area...When his exoskeleton came off and I checked it out, the areas with the shell disease were almost paper thin, and almost transparent...Could this shell disease infect the other mantis i have in the tank?

His shell was all guey and junk too when I removed it...I've heard O. scyllarus likes to eat the molting, but I have another small mantis in there and didn't want to ruin the water.
 
pic of o.scyllarus

pic of o.scyllarus

Here is a pic of my O.scyllarus
You can see a little of the shell disease, but the majority of it is not visible in the pic. The manti s is in a ten gallon tank which he shares...He's about 5-6 inches. this is the one that just molted, but the pic is about 3 weeks before molt.
 
pic-resized

pic-resized

pic os small mantis below, the post above is a clearer pic of the o. scyllarus...are these coming out clearly?
 
pic of full tank

pic of full tank

Here's a pic of the full 10 gallon tank that is split between two mantis'
I hope to remove that white tube soon, live rock is curing still...
 
Nice tank! The resized pictures came out much clearer. Your little mantis is really cute. :D

My mantis doesn't have any white spots on her. I'll be keeping an eye out for them. If my new O. scyllarus from Flying Fish _ever_ shows, I'll have to make sure he doesn't have it, either. I hope somebody can tell us if it's contagious!

Jennifer
 
Cause?

Cause?

What causes the shell disease? Lack of calcium? Bad diet? Or is it something not quite understood yet?
 
After a bad case of shell disease, if the animal successfully molts, there is often deformed and discolored cuticle where the disease was. This makes sense since the tissue underneath the cutcle that manufactures the new cuticle was damaged. If the disease doesn't worsen, this will get better with each molt. Hang in there. It sounds like your beast has a chance.

Roy
 
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