I have had a peacock mantis for about 10 days now, and no matter what time of day it is I never see him/her out in the open. The shrimp is eating as it ate some snails and krill I fed the other day. I also added some hermit crabs which have not roamed too close to the burrow and are still alive. Are peacocks typically shy or more active? Am I just being impatient and should give it some more time? Thank god I put a blue damsel in the tank, at least I see some movement.
Shy Peacock?
- Thread starter rdumont55
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Gonodactylus
Premium Member
O. scyllarus vary considerably with respect to activity away from the burrow depending on sex, size, molt and reproductive status, hunger, their familiarity with the aquarium, and the x-factor that we can call personality. Most will eventually learn that there is food to be had from that strange shape on the other side of the glass, but a few never do.
Roy
Roy
Dr. Roy has covered it but I will give some suggestions too (if that is ok). I think you are being impatient. It has been less than 2 weeks so try and give it some more time. Maybe the peacock is going to molt soon thus the hiding. I seem to have a very active 9/10 scale peacock. He comes out throughout the day climbing over all of the rocks when the lights are on as well as in the mornings before the lights come on. One other suggestion: Look at your rock work. How many burrows has it made? Two? For the first 2 months mine had made 2 burrows. After I "opened up" the rock work, there are 8 burrows now.
Finally, feed him in different areas of your tank if you want it to start exploring more. I have 4 burrows that I feed at.
Sometimes if he does not take it, I have the food on a bamboo skewer and stick it in the substrate and walk away. Usually within 10 minutes I will walk by and see the skewer moving. Good luck.
Finally, feed him in different areas of your tank if you want it to start exploring more. I have 4 burrows that I feed at.
Sometimes if he does not take it, I have the food on a bamboo skewer and stick it in the substrate and walk away. Usually within 10 minutes I will walk by and see the skewer moving. Good luck.
Ten day update and still the same. There are 2 good pieces of live rock, plenty of rubble rock, and 2" of sand. The peacock has a nice hole in one of the live rock pieces but the only thing I see are his eyes, and when I approach he ducks into the rock. The tank is in my bedroom and I never hear a peep out of him at night. Most of the crabs are still alive, and he eats krill that I toss in for him/her.
Shouldn't I have more action from the peacock by now?
I would love to take a picture as I am not 100% sure it is even a peacock, but I have never seen his entire body since I tanked the mantis. The mantis was sold to me as a peacock, and is green and red but I want to make sure.
Shouldn't I have more action from the peacock by now?
I would love to take a picture as I am not 100% sure it is even a peacock, but I have never seen his entire body since I tanked the mantis. The mantis was sold to me as a peacock, and is green and red but I want to make sure.
andromedia226
New member
I heard on here that if you remove all food sources and only feed a few times a week (he will have to look for his next meal) then he'll explore more.
Don't always feed at the same interval of time... I have no clue how this will affect his nutritional health though.
Don't always feed at the same interval of time... I have no clue how this will affect his nutritional health though.
Janina
New member
HOw big is your mantis? You mentioend that he/she lives inside of a rock? I'm no expert but I was under the impression that peacocks don't live inside rocks per say but rather burrow under rocks or build rock piles under which they burrow. Maybe you don;t have a peacock. Did you take a picture before putting it in the tank? A lot of people sell mantis as peacocks that aren't peacocks. However, the coloring of a peacock mantis is very distinct and no matter how big yours is, it should show the characteristic patterns. I've had ones as small as 2.5 inches and as big as 6 and they all look exactly the same. If yours didn't look like what you see in other people's pictures of peacocks, then it's not a peacock.
My 5 inch female peacock is extremely active especially when she gets really hungry. I feed her every second day, I can always tell when the second day come around because she gets a lot of more active, searching for food. She will roam all of the tank (30g long) climbing on the rocks and into the nooks and cranies.
My 5 inch female peacock is extremely active especially when she gets really hungry. I feed her every second day, I can always tell when the second day come around because she gets a lot of more active, searching for food. She will roam all of the tank (30g long) climbing on the rocks and into the nooks and cranies.
The mantis is about 4". The piece of rock that was hollowed out is plenty big enough to fit him/her. I have tried the 2-3 day hunger strike and still no roaming has happened. I do see the beetie purple eyes protruding from the rock looking around though. I just can't get a look at the shell enough to see if the leopard spots are there or not. The LFS I got the mantis from was a ways away so I had my friend pick the shrimp up for me, so I had to rely on the LFS's word it was a peacock.
Janina
New member
A 4 inch peacock is a pretty good size and would need a rather large hole to live in. Because peacocks get to be pretty large when full grown, a 4 inch peacock is much larger in body (width) than a 4 inch mantis who has already reached bull size. I previsouly had a Gonodactylaceus glabrous that was 4 inches (adult sized) and it looked tiny compared to the peacock I got who was 4.5 inches. The peacock was at least twice as wide. So like I said, it would have to be a large hole in the rock for a 4 inch peacock to reside in it. And as I said before, peacocks don't usually live inside rocks but rather burrow underneath them.
Based on your description of habitat and behavior, I'm going to guess that you don't have a peacock. But keep trying to get a picture, be interesting.
Based on your description of habitat and behavior, I'm going to guess that you don't have a peacock. But keep trying to get a picture, be interesting.
OK, I finally enticed him enough so I can look at the mantis. It is definitely not a peacock. Looking through Dr. Roy's list it looks like a Gonodactylus chiragra. It is mostly dark green with some small white spots on each side of its head (sorry don't quite know the technical terms). The attennae are mostly reddish in color. And the mantis is not active at all, which also meets the description. Any futher info on the Gonodactylus chiragra would be appeciated. I am a bit dissappointed, I really wanted a peacock. Oh well, that is what you get when you buy site unseen.
Gonodactylus
Premium Member
These are powerful predators that specialize on armored snails and hermit crabs. They usually leave their cavities for short foraging runs and most of their time is spend smashing prey in their den. When they molt, they tend to hole up for longer than most stomatopods - 2 weeks is not uncommon.
I usually keep a few around the lab to demonstrate their striking power to visitors. A rod held near the burrow entrance usually elicits a strong strike. Here is a tip. They truly dislike green. I use a green plastic toothbrush handle to elicit strikes. It makes a strong crack when they hit it and they don't seem to habituate to it.
I am constantly amaze at how little effort some suppliers and LFS owners put into identifying their stock. One of the reasons I put up Roy's List was to provide a tool that they could use to identify and learn about stomatopods. Guess it didn't help much in this case.
Roy
I usually keep a few around the lab to demonstrate their striking power to visitors. A rod held near the burrow entrance usually elicits a strong strike. Here is a tip. They truly dislike green. I use a green plastic toothbrush handle to elicit strikes. It makes a strong crack when they hit it and they don't seem to habituate to it.
I am constantly amaze at how little effort some suppliers and LFS owners put into identifying their stock. One of the reasons I put up Roy's List was to provide a tool that they could use to identify and learn about stomatopods. Guess it didn't help much in this case.
Roy
Dr. Roy,
Are there any other color likes/dislikes that you can mention like this? I do little experiments myself, to try to see who likes what,etc...
I have 2 G chiraga, 2 P cilata, a O. scyllarus, a G viridis, a G platysoma, a G. smithii, a N. wennerae and 2 of what are possibly G glabrous.
Any color fun i can have with them?
Good Gawd...look at that list. I need help...
-Ron
Thurge
New member
I would be more than happy to help you with your menagerie Uriel. I'm sure I could find room around the house for a couple of them. I'd even send you shipping materials. 
Yea I am just that kind of guy.
On a side note I can't wait to taunt Hairy with the green net handle after work.
Yea I am just that kind of guy.
On a side note I can't wait to taunt Hairy with the green net handle after work.
