Question about G. smithii behaviour...

[instinkt]

Okay, I've had my mantis for about a week now and have recently IDed him as a G. smithii.
I've recently noticed him swimming madly across the tank, then when he gets to a corner he'll swim straight up til he hits the surface then zip back down to his hole. He does this quite often and I'm a little worried. Should I be? Or is he just curious or energetic?
My tank is a small 6g, and has been up for just over a month now, ammonia is either 0 or 0.1, and nitrites is also either 0 or 0.1. I have one powerhead and one HOB filter, so there should be enough water movement and oxygen.

 

[dwarfatize]

Is that ppt or ppm?

 

[instinkt]

Umm... mg/L
I don't know how it's calculated to ppm or ppt .. what ever they mean

 

[dwarfatize]

ppt or ppm stands for parts per thousand or parts per million. Have you used any chemicals in or around your tank lately? Mantis shrimps are very sensative to chemicals.

 

[instinkt]

Nope. The only thing I can think of is deodorant, but that shouldn't reach the tank anyway.

 

[Gonodactylus]

He does not understand the concept of "Glass". Many stomatopods do this when they first get into a tank. THey swim along the bottom and suddenly somthing stops them. In the ocean the normal escape would be to swim up into the water column to go over the barrier. That doesn't work, so it keeps going up. Finally it hits the surface. It can't continue in that direction, so it is back to the safety of the substrate.

Sometimes it takes weeks before animals stop this behavior - some never do - and when in a panic, they will still exhibit it.

Roy

 

[instinkt]

Thanks for the replies.
I thought that might be the answer, I just wanted to make sure I wasn't doing something wrong.

 

[RogueCorps]

That's very interesting info...

I guess I'm lucky that ours doesn't continually crash the glass, but it has taken to hit the glass where her den points to the right of the tank. I realize she's probably trying to extend her den, but a 5" O.S. hitting the glass of a 5 gallon is a little scary.

I've since added a sheet of polyethelyne with a small space before the glass. When she hits it it's LOUD, but at least the water displacing should buffer the force of the hit.

I know, I know... The 5 is too small for her now. Her new 15 gallon is all set up and cycled. I'm just letting a small crew of hermits take care of some hair algae before she goes in.

-Rogue

 

[instinkt]

Hehe, I have the same problem with my 2" mantis. He's dug a nice burrow under the rock with about three different entrances, and sometimes I'll be sitting here and I can hear him bashing on the bottom of the tank. I cringe every time. I just hope he decides to give up before he grows any bigger.

 

[RogueCorps]

Oh wow Instinkt... Didn't notice you were all the way down-under.

Yeah... At least with the constant wall-bashing she's getting some use of her hammers and will be less likely to drop them. In the new 15 gallon that I've set up I placed a few sheets of 1/4" acrylic under the sandbed in likely spots where she'll dig out a den. It would really suck to have a cracked tank.



-Rogue