Just got my mantis!

[Anonymous]

A cool dude @ RC sent me a mantis he acquired in a shipment of TBS live rock. Shipping was hard on the guy, but he is still alive! (he was double bagged with air, insulated by newspaper, boxed and then sent overnight air).


....

When I opened the box, he wasn't looking so hot (beautiful specimen, though!), he was sluggish and laying on his back. The mantis was wedged into a fold of the plastic bag, but he was underwater at least. I checkd him out and he was still kicking, barely!

Over my lunch break I sped home and got him acclimating. A friend of mine is over at my place using my computer to hunt for jobs, so I have instructed him how to gently acclimate the mantis for me while I'm at work - I started the bag floating and wrote down careful instructions for a gentle acclimation.

I think the main problem is just that the water in his bag was depleted of oxygen. He perked up a little when I started him acclimating and swirled a little fresh water in there (I added about a cup, that's a lot more than I like to do, but I decided that he really needed some fresh water with oxygen in it).

 

[Anonymous]

We want PICTURES!

This isn't a peacock, is it? Tell your friend to stick his hand in there to make it feel at home. :twisted:

 

[Anonymous]

Nope, it's probably N. wennerae, but I'll have to stare at the little critter more to be certain.

My friend has been duly warned about fingers in the tank.

No pix for you, my digicam broke the other day. It's been a bad week. (two of my friends have dropped dead of mysterious heart stoppage. no heart disease, no history of family problems in the heart, not drug users, it wasn't a heart attack).

Gotta run, life sux.
-me

 

[Anonymous]

Sorry to hear all that...so have you decided to start the "Rocky" training for the little guy? I can just here Eye of the Tiger now

 

[Anonymous]

No pix for you, my digicam broke the other day. It's been a bad week. (two of my friends have dropped dead of mysterious heart stoppage. no heart disease, no history of family problems in the heart, not drug users, it wasn't a heart attack).

Gotta run, life sux.
-me

Oh my God.. Hwa, another friend died???? I am so sorry to read this.

 

[Anonymous]

Yay!

 

[Anonymous]

Wow...

 

[sokol1312]

where did you get him? I would like to get one.how much they go for?

 

[Anonymous]

A dude on RC sent him to me, I just had to pay for shipping. Try talking to someone that gets a shipment of TBS live rock.

 

[Anonymous]

Dont let those pretty colors fool ya..nice looking specimen there Hwarang...I didnt think they stayed out in the open during the day? So when does Mantis Blood Sport begin??

 

[Anonymous]

Pretty sure it's a male wennerae now. He's not reclusive in the least. The emerald crab got a little too close and got a warning shot across the bow. I named the shrimp "Banstyle" and he watches me as much as I watch him. Already, he's one of the coolest aquarium inhabitants I've had yet. I'm thinking of putting him in a larger aquarium that I'm setting up now, but I need to figure out if there's a way to keep a cleanup crew of any sort in a 5.5g (w/ 2.5g sump and skimmer woot!) that houses a mantis. I think I could put one large turbo snail in but the crab and sand sifter angle is gonna be tricky.

I'm going to go sit on the couch and read The Illuminatis trilogy to Banstyle now. Later

-meh

 

[Anonymous]

NICE shrimp you got there.

I tried a cleanup crew. It ended up being food for the mantis.

B

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks, Bingo!

Got any tips or fun mantis tricks for me?

 

[Anonymous]

watch your fingers? theres a tip ... :wink: i think youre in a rut with a clean up crew... i dont know if it will eat a cuke, that will keep the sandbed clean but the glass w/o snails i think you might be in trouble

 

[Anonymous]

I bet you could train him to hit a target for food. That would be cool.

 

[Anonymous]

Hwarang, what are those types of mantis shrimp that have that calcified left or right claw (cant remember which)? The one that uses that bad@ss claw to smash things like Thor or Donkey Kong?! Id love to see one of those guys! I dont even know what they look like! Then, you should have a duel; Smashing Claw Sid versus Stabby the Impaler! You could make a godzilla-esc movie by putting the camera up close and watching, then market it to the Japanese for millions!!! Teh L33tizle!

No, seriously, just what are those smashing style mantisii (plural of mantis???)?

 

[Anonymous]

plural for mantis' is manti?

 

[Anonymous]

Mantii? Or manti? I think its atually mantii, with two ii's, making it seem more official and scientific and stuff... But mantisii sounds cooler!

 

[Anonymous]

DewrGleision,

(I'm not a mantis expert, but I've been doing my reading)

Mantis species are divided into two subsets, spearers and bashers. All bashers are equipped with clubs on both front appendages. All spearers have spears on both fron appendages. Spearers live in burrows in the substrate, usually have flat eyes that resemble solar panels and tend to hunt anything passing by the hole. Bashers live in and around rockwork, drillin holes with their clubs (hence, the tick tick tick many hear when they have a mantis). They tend to hunt slow moving things that crawl around the reef, and usually have oval or spherical eyes on stalks.

My mantis is a Neogonodactylus wennera (basher), and I wub him.

 

[Anonymous]

That thing is a basher?! Wheres the big ole' freakin' claw covered in like calcium and encrusted with pimp-diamonds?! You should get him a little pimp boxing glove, bade out of cardboard or something soft, so that way you can take him on with your index and middle fingers in the tank and not come away bleeding! That would be sooo coool too! Boxing a mantis shrimp! With pimp-gloves! You should make him a little boxer-robe-thing too, out of a peice of cloth or something. Then when thats all done, make him a little pimp-cane out of a toothpick and bead and call it good!

...That would be one pimped out mantis shrimp!!!...