After reading this post, I too was of the understanding that this mantis will be housed in a glass tank.

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/sho...2&postcount=12

You must have some other info that Justin and I both missed somehow.

Sorry Justin and Gary, my bad. I don't know where I got acrylic from...

- Chad

no worries chad.

hey rudy, I just want to say that I don't mean to take over this thread or order you around in terms of how you house your mantis. I just really want this mantis to do well because he is so rare. It'd be such a shame for it to die prematurely. so yeah... apologies if you're hating me right now.

i guess im sorta living vicariously. if you want me to back off, just let me know.

I am not offended, hurt, any anything else about this thread.

The fact is that for the first month I have a big chance of losing this guy period so there is no way I am going to go acrylic on something this small (in comparison), but there is no way I was going to let him stay in a 14 gallon regardless.

We will see. I will tell you that this mantis may as well not even have a burrow. It is by far the most "out and about" mantis I have owned other than my ciliata which fricken died yesterday. :(

http://s168.photobucket.com/albums/u198/rudykane/

Here are some new pics of him in a 56 gallon (his new home). There is also a shot of the tank. I would tell you where his cave it however in all honesty he does not really have one. he is always out. I wonder about his as he is a deep water mantis whether they are more inclined to hang out side their den.

His death toll is 3 damsels, 2 hairy crabs and a ton of snails. The damsel stalks are amazing

wow nice kill list! sounds like a feisty one.

seems like he's a happpy camper and getting used to all the space and is doing very well. I want one *pout*

Were it not for the fact that I fear that it would also de-fish, de-urchinize and de-snail my tank, I'd be asking one of you mantis owners to rent me a mantis to de-crab my cube tank (well.. maybe not the über-rare 15 million dollar mantis mind you, but one of the others maybe..). (Worst infestation I've ever seen in a tank :( At 30" deep with no rock moving option thanks to a 24" anemone, it's impossible to manually remove them. And traps only seem to catch my cleaner shrimp :neutral:) ... Oh well.

Neat that you have such a rare one.. who'dda thunk it .. usually all the rare stuff ends up in the U.S. or Vancouver...

I would love those crabs Tony!

Ocean City is doing some incredible invert orders these days.

I have no idea how to get them out, otherwise yeah, you'd have at least a dozen little snacks ranging in size from 1/4" to about 1.5" .. I'd love to try a "biological control" but a trigger is probably too messy with the sand in the tank, I've been told an eel probably wouldn't do it, an octopus probably would but the tank is *nowhere* near octopus-safe, that leaves a mantis but then I guess the snails, shrimp (cleaners and peppermints), urchins and fish would have to be moved to a different tank?

tony, yeah your other stuff would have to be moved and once you had the mantis in there... well It's a LOT harder to remove a mantis than any crab.

lol 15million dollar mantis... that he got for free!