Sick mantis

[havre]

Hi!

I got my first mantis(scyllarus) about a month ago. During the last week some "brown" mysterious patterns have occured on his back. Seeing pictures of shell disease, which seem to be quite common, thats my guess. Question is; is there anything I can do to help him?

I have only had him for such a short time and hes just starting do adjust and i dont want to loose him. Hes very active and social, he is currently spying on me .

Regards
Thomas from Sweden

 

[justinl]

you'll want to get a pic so we can tell you if it really is or not. if it is, start feeding frozens every day soaked in a supplement like selcon; remove uneaten food. black out the tank completely or at least reduce photoperiod significantly. pray. keep water quaity high. you'll want to pinpoint the cause if it's possible; water quality, too high light, etc. youve had it for a short time so it might not even be your fault, but we'd need more info to say.

 

[yankeereefer]

+1 for justin's input.

My peacock had shell disease as well when I got him. Keep feeding it the fortified food. I only used actinic lighting and for short periods. Provide the mantis lots of rubble (ability to close up tunnels)

Mine finally molted and does not have any traces of disease.

Keep watching your mantis - Mine developed a white "stripe" on it's back about 2 weeks before the molt. Dr. Roy experienced the same phenomenon with an O.s. just before molt.

Hopefully yours will go into molt soon and everything turns out ok

Ryan

 

[havre]

Thanks for the input!

It might be the light since i got 4x24W and the tank is 30G, gonna reduce to the actinic only. The SPS in the tank is growing with polyps out so the water quality can be classified as good.
I have been feeding shrimptails soaked in garlic and Ultira Min (aminoacids etc).
Have crushed a big piece and drowned him in small bits of LS for him to build with.

Heres a pic of his back and the root of my concern.

Regards
Thomas

 

[DanInSD]

This appears to be shell disease.

 

[dragonette]

it doesnt look REAL bad though... I think he could definetly recover if he had a sucessful molt, just like yankeereefer's did(check out his post to see it)

Is there high lighting on this tank? he does have a burrow to hide right?

 

[havre]

As I said in a previous post the lightning is 4x24W T5 for a 30G tank.
He has two burrows that he switches between during the day, one is closed and the other is abit more open.

Should I cover the tank up completely for a couple of days/a week with a sheet and see how he progress when hes undisturbed, or wont it make a difference?
The corals can be moved to my other tank

Regards THomas

 

[yankeereefer]

I don't think that a total blackout is necessary - I only used actinic's for short periods daily.

Here's the link to my thread(s)

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1300066 http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1283142

Ryan