Schedule for a new mantis?

[MSU Fan]

Yesterday I received my first mantis via overnight shipping (Thanks Fuzznutz!). My question is about the lighting; not so much as to what kind, but how long and what time. I have read that they "go to bed" pretty early. Is that relative to the literal time or the "time" in the tank? I work during the day and would like to be able to see him/her in the evening. I have all my aquariums set up with the lights turning on around noon. Can you do the same thing with a Mantis to shift their schedule?:rollface:

 

[Alesia]

Well, I can only speak for my experiences with my mantis, but she seems to "go to bed" on the given lighting schedule. I also work all day, so I have the tank timed to turn on at noon and off at 10pm. She'll close up shop around 9:00pm unless I'm doing something interesting in the room, or unless I have a lot of bright lights on outside of her tank. I've seen her stay up quite late when I'm awake and moving around, but once I've settled down, she tends to go to bed.

Of course she always seems to sense when I want to do tank maintenance, waiting for her to close her door for the night, and THOSE are the nights that she stays up...

 

[wanabebell]

all you have to do to make your mantis go to bed is show them your MSU flag

Now if you wanted it to stay up Id recommend hanging a flag thats orange and Blue.

 

[wanabebell]

forgot to mention their should be a big block "I" in the middle of the flag

 

[Pea-brain]

Depends on their schedule in the wild. I turned on the lights at 2 PM for my P. ciliata, but they like to open up at crack of dawn in the wild. First light. As a result he went to bed about 6-8 PM and I turned off the lights at 10 PM. In order to get him on MY schedule after I turned off the lights I put a towel around the tank (using the hood and a magnet cleaner) and it still didn't work till I figured there was a corner where light got in. Sealed that off and he was on my schedule in a week.

Dan

 

[DivaMan]

My mantis is set on a 10 hr cycle he seems to close up within a half hr or so of lights out. However I am slowly adjusting his cycle so I dont know weather this will change.

 

[Fuzznutz]

Just so you know...said Mantis was usually closing up shop in the 8pm range. This is also the time my halides would go out in the display tank, so I kept the same time in the Mantis holdover tank. That Mantis is also VERY active during the day hours...constantly digging in the sand and roaming around from rock to rock.

edit: That was EST of course

 

[MSU Fan]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10433467#post10433467 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by wanabebell
all you have to do to make your mantis go to bed is show them your MSU flag

Now if you wanted it to stay up Id recommend hanging a flag thats orange and Blue.

Wait, that should be the opposite - to get the mantis to go to sleep, I should take it to an Illini football game...:lol: JK!

 

[wanabebell]

hey i do believe we beat MSU lol
thats our first (but not last) big ten victory in like three or fours years

 

[wanabebell]

oh speaking of IL football we are gonna have a full house this year every home game
due to stadium renivations lol

 

[MSU Fan]

Thank you for everyone's help. I think that I am going to have to seal off the tank like Pea-brain said. When I woke up for work this morning, 7AM CST, "Monster" was already peering out of his hole at me. :wave: It looked as though he had been hard at work well before I got up and I have the lights scheduled to come on at noon. Oh well, we'll see how this goes.

 

[Fuzznutz]

LOL..."Monster", ehh?

 

[MSU Fan]

It's an endearing name! I think he/she is the most adorable thing ever...lol. Speaking of that, does anyone know how I can figure out whether it is a boy or girl?

 

[DanInSD]

Yes, look for gonopods / gonopores (boy/girl parts, respectively). See the "stomatpod sex" sticky on this forum.

Dan