Say Hi to Twitch

[psychodave]

Ok, so I finaly got the pictures of the G. Smithii from Atlantis...

Say Hi to Twitch!

 

[iCam]

Very pretty ....or handsome

What are Twitch's new living arrangements?

 

[DensityMan]

Excellent mantis!

I'm sure (s)he won't disappoint.

(Same color morph as Tim too... interesting)

 

[psychodave]

He is in my 10 gal for now, ill snap a few pictures tonight. i was finally able to sex him when he crawled up the side of the tank. Hes been building a cave out of shell bits, coral skeletons and LR rubble...the tank is fianlly starting to clear up after all of the digging hes been doing. No corals in the tank, just a yellow damsel, the lighting is 1x65 50/50 with 4 tubes. 2 1/2 sand bead and 8-10 lbs of live rock.

So far hes quite entertaining!! I cant elaborate right now as im at work, but ill be back tonight

 

[Hutton]

man, mine is the only one that doesnt have that color morph....

 

[Patio]

What up
I am your nieghbor from pleasanton and my "pete" looks the same as your "twitch"

 

[psychodave]

Oh, hey, hows it goin? Where abouts is P-town are you? Got any pics of Pete?

 

[Patio]

this is my best shot when i first got him. You can see when i got him he only had one smasher now he has one and a half. I dont have a cam so i take pics when my friend brings cam over. I live near county fair.

 

[psychodave]

Nice, thats a good lookin mantis!
Do you just have the mantis tank or do you have any others? What LFC do you use?

 

[Patio]

I work in san jose so i use all of those places. I have a 2.7g and a 30g

 

[DensityMan]

Patio: Your mantis appears to be Gonodactylaceus ternatensis (the orange meral spots are the tell-tale).

That species may be the template from which Tim, Twitch and a few other Gonodactylus smithii mimic in an "uncommon" color morph (recently it seems that everyone's G. smithii save for Hutton's is this alternate morph ).

Neat mantis.

 

[Patio]

I had a certain guy from berkley tell me it was a g smith. I think my old school camera came up with the morph. i will get more pics up when i can

 

[Elite]

I've seem a lot of these guys around SJ LFS lately.... Must be mantis season ...

 

[DensityMan]

I wouldn't dispute a certain guy from Berkley (as long as his name was Roy), but the picture above with the orange meral spots certainly appears to be a Gonodactylaceus ternatensis.

Hopefully he can can back in here and say for certain...

 

[psychodave]

Hey, as far as rock work in Tim and Pete's tank...what do you guys have in there? Just one large rock that they burro in, or a few rocks stacked up to make tunnels between them? I have 4 or 5 rocks that Twitch has chipped away at but he seems to be tunneling around and under the rocks now. I think his main tunnel is through one of the rocks and into the sand behind it. Just curious as to what their homes are made of...rock or sand or both...

 

[Patio]

I have a lot of tonga branch and the have a rock cave you can see in the pic above.

Densityman sent PM

 

[Rass]

G Graphurus and Glabrous also have orange spots. They look very similar to each other. I have one that looks just like that pick. The Terns usually have more blue I think.

 

[psychodave]

so I think I just found part of one of Twitch's smashers...I hope its just from a molt and not from him breaking it, but he hasnt come out of his burro for about 2 weeks now...

I think the outlined part of his smasher is what i found...

and heres 2 pics of the object in question

Any thoughts? I havent seen anyother pieces...just this one so im not sure if hes molted...

 

[DensityMan]

The dactyls aren't usually consumed by the mantis after a molt and can make for neat little souveniers when you can find them...

 

[psychodave]

I knew it!! Thank you!! It looks like Tims from 2 years ago its shorter than my pinky nail is wide