sick peacock

[kyliegirl]

I have had my peacock for a little over a week. recently i added some base rock into the tank,2 days ago the mantis seemed very upset and stressed, i thought it was because the tank hit 31 degrees celcius, but he showed no improvement last night, this morning he was out of his burrow and wasnt moving much at all, I could pick him up and he wouldnt move.

I felt it was the base rock doing this so i removed him and placed him into a small container (the one he came in) and placed him in my main tanks sump, he has showed a little improvement and is moving a little more thoguh i am concerned the damage is done.

I removed the water in the tank (which was a little green, so i am guessing this base rock was live not long ago)

i gave him a little peice of shrimp in the container but it doesnt look like hes eating and the nigth before was refusing any food.

his symptoms atm are as follows

-slow, responds slightly to colours but will not react
- pleopods are still moving in rythm
- mexillipeds take food but dont seem to be holding it as well, some maxillipeds will reach out and grab his raptorial appendages
- raptorial appendages are relaxed from sockets, he has locked them out of position than in position and hasnt placed them back in position since..
- antennules/antenna are moving slightly but not as much
- he is still looking around but doesnt seem to be as alert
- no signs of shell disease on his carapace.

any ideas?

edit- did an ammonia test after the water change on the mantis tank and its at .50, it must have been really high before that, would this have caused some poisoning?

how can i help my mantis recover, i dont have any reasonable sized tanks for him atm other than the 2ft tank.

 

[danskim]

Vitamin soaked food perhaps...

 

[mattyice]

i would say try and keep him in the fuge, try some vitamin enriched food, keep him in a small stable tank, let his normal tank cycle for a few weeks, also keep the lights off and give him a dark place to keep, try not to bother him for a few days to a week and also it might not even be he is sick, it could be molting behavior

 

[kyliegirl]

mantis passed away, no visible cause it might have been a failed moult or ammonia poisoning. not real sure..

 

[moosen34]

Sorry to hear about your loss. I wish you could have found a solution

 

[DanInSD]

I'd bet it's ammonia toxicity. I'm currently curing some rock for a mantis tank -- I'll make sure mine is 100% done.

 

[deboM3]

Sorry to hear that he passed.

 

[mattyice]

very very sorry about the loss, you tried your hardest though, are you going to keep the tank setup for another one?

 

[kyliegirl]

yeah i am letting the tank cycle and i plan to add another one in. hopefully it will just as pretty as my last mantis.

 

[mattyice]

im sure it will be! if you would want one i would try and go with either the large male from mknwaves.com or they have small "thumb" sized ones also ive heard

 

[Gonodactylus]

Stomatopods are very sensitive to ammonia and nitrites. A spike in nitrogen can easily kill them. You cannot take shortcuts preparing a tank. It really has to have cycled and be rock stable before you add a peacock or any other mantis.

There seems to be a disturbing increase in the number of dead and dying stomatopods being reported. Some of this may be due to collection methods and shipment stress, but some of it is also due to people taking shortcuts, using too small tanks, and impulse buying.

If you hang out for awhile on cephalopod sites, you will see that many of the aquarists who keep octopus and cuttlefish are almost fanatical about properly preparing their aquaria before buying an animal. They also recommend very large systems for the size of the beast being kept. I fear that until this same culture develops in the stomatopod community, we are going to continue to see a high level of mortality.

Roy

 

[mattyice]

so im guessing a 40G breeder for a female peacock is good enough lol, im not saying that kyliegirl took any shortcuts or even the tank was too small but i notice alot of people are wanting to put peacocks in small tank, alot in 20 gallon long tanks, to me that just doesnt seem like enough surface area for such an active animal? is this correct or am i just taking this too far?

 

[Gonodactylus]

A 40 gal is probably sufficient even for a 6 inch O. scyllarus, but I cringe when I see people putting them into a 10 gal system with nothing more than a simple filtration system. I currently have an O. scyllarus in a 5 gal aquarium, but the animal is only 52 mm, the filtration is a Fluval 204 and the system has run successfully for over a year. (It is usually used for blue-rings.) I would not put a three inch animal in such a system let alone the standard 4-5 inch peacock.

Roy

 

[kyliegirl]

i placed my peacock in a 2ft tank, 25 gal from what i know, i added a pipe for him to live in and then added dead base rock for him to climb on and explore, unfortunately the rock mustve been left to die and therefore dead matter caused an ammonia spike in the tank.

He was in perfect condition and fed readily, no signs of damage or distress on arrival very alert, i guess i just had an unfortunate bump and got base rock which wasnt exactly completely dead.

 

[mattyice]

im sorry if what i said offended you kylie but it wasnt directed towards you, i was talking more about the other people that want to stick a full grown peacock in 12 gallon aquapods and the like