the mantis cube

JOSH · #1 01-05-2007, 01:41 AM

thanks fish,

still no smashing, he ate a shrimp pellet the first night, i didnt feed him last night and i came home today and he hasnt touched any of the hermits.

and i cant figure out why some zoo's arnt opening now that the mantis is in there, before they were always open

when a hermit comes by my mantis just poked him so he hides, doesnt try to hammer him or anything

JOSH · #2 01-05-2007, 02:06 AM

couple more pics i added some more rubble for him to hide in looks like hes enjoying it

look left theres dinner!!!!

moving some rocks making some new holes

Fish · #3 01-05-2007, 02:17 AM

How big is the hermit?
I find that it's easy to overestimate the power of the small smashers... it was that way for me and Ike. Through a little trial and error I fouind what size he was capeable of handleing. Your snail is safe... unless the mantis takes the patient approach and hammers away at it for years.

- Chad

JOSH · #4 01-05-2007, 02:23 AM

i have one that is really small too and he hasnt bothered him ither, haha maybe that explains why he tryed to rip the hermit out of the shell and not smash his shell

i dropped in another shrimp pellet and he flew out for it instantly

untamed · #5 01-05-2007, 03:16 AM

Mine's not much more than 1.5", and he makes pretty quick work of an average hermit crab. Well...it might not be quick...it usually takes a few hours.

Fish · #6 01-05-2007, 03:39 AM

I found that with Ike, hermits and snails with fingernail-sized shells were like candy to him and he really had to work to open up a thumbnail sized one.
Oh, and a mantis that size would not be able to break the glass of your tank, so no worries.

- Chad

JOSH · #7 01-05-2007, 03:34 PM

well i got ten small blue leggs on order so we'll see what happens, varoius sizes so maybe some willl stay alive to help clean the tank

Skimmer Juice · #8 01-05-2007, 05:34 PM

The zoo's are probably not opening , because he is walking on them.

G1GY · #9 01-05-2007, 08:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish

Oh, and a mantis that size would not be able to break the glass of your tank, so no worries.

- Chad

Never underestimate these little buggers.

I got a 2" mantis from Kari here on the board and the little bugger smashed some of the plastic grating out of one of the plastic hang on cages that I kept it in for one night. (Just about escaped into my reef.)

I put it in a small Azoo acrylic to house it and within a couple of weeks he cracked that.

I gave him to another person here on the board and he cracked that persons sump. That guy put him into a jar (Because it was late in the evening) and was going to bring him to Albert at Gold the next day after work. The next day he returns home from work and finds the little mantis dead in a cracked (Mostly empty.) jar.

justinl · #10 01-07-2007, 08:30 PM

wow that sounds like one mantis in major need of anger management. IMO any mantis over 1.5 inches has the potential to break glass but unless they're over 6 inches the likelyhood of a cracked tank is very low. there are stories, but they're rare. If you have an acrylic tank with sufficient volume to have a happy mantis, you should be able to sleep without worries.