What kind of mantis did I get?

A friend from a local LFS called me the other night and told me he had taken out a mantis from one of the rocks he got in and said I could have it if I wanted it. I brought it home and he is in a fishbowl right now while I'm getting his tank all set up and cycled. He is about 1.5" and the top of his body is brown in color with the underside a "moutain dew green" color . He is a smasher. When he molts, will his color finish developing or change or will he stay like that? I have put in a few small snails, a hermit, and tried to handfeed him but I have not seen him eat or lunge at any of the food. He is really good at nailing my chopstick though when its in there. Is this normal? He's only been there a couple of days. Can anyone give me an ID if possible?
 
You will find

You will find

there are a ton of colour variations when it comes to mantis shrimp. The best thing you can do it grab many pics and post here for ID. Picture especially around the tail fins, look for spots called "Meral" spots. They help with the ID.

My smasher is also pretty shy. They like plenty of places to hide and might get bolder as time goes.

They *can*, but not always, change their colour when shedding.
 
If you know the origin of the Live Rock and the color of the meral spots, I can make a pretty good guess as to the species. From the description you gave, if the LR is from Florida, you probably have a Neogonodactylus wennerae.

Roy
 
Whenever I see that word

Whenever I see that word

"Neogonodactylus wennerae"

For some reason I want to pronounce the second word as "Weinerai" which makes me think of weiner dogs (Dachunds) and I get the mental image of an underwater weiner dog.

Sorry, I'll go now...:D
 
I'm not sure on the origin on the rock from which the mantis came from. The rocks he was in are dense and a little bit boulderish looking with not much visible growth on them. The meral spots look like a dark purple or brown when viewed under natural light
 
O.K., there are only two species that I know of that have purple meral spots. Neogonodactylus oerstedii from the Caribbean has purple to greyish purple spots. The body can be a variety of colors. Females always have a peppering of small black spots all over the body.

Gonodactylus smithii from the Indo-Pacific has an intense purple spot. The body is usually green mottled. The other key marking is a pair of red spots at the base of the uropods.

I will attach a couple of pictures below. The first is of a G. smithii threatening showing the meral spots.
 
wow, mine isnt even close to being that bright colored. I did notice that he has white spots on the "smashers". Sorry, but don't know their anatomy yet. I'll visit the blueboard site in a bit to learn their body parts
 
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