Zebra mantis

[Borderjumper]

Ive never had a mantis so I know nothing about feeding them... but I have kept mollys in my reef tanks before when I had an algae problem. They did very well ( in fact better than my freshwater ones) and produced mass quantities of live food ( the fry) for my fish.

[my2rotties]

Interesting... I guess I should do some reading about this. I hate feeding live food, but I knew I would probably have to do so when I brought the creature home.

I take it I need to slowly acclimate the mollys to salt water? It would be nice to have food for the shrimp on hand, instead of having to run out and spend about $10 a fish for a few of them.

Originally Posted by Borderjumper

Ive never had a mantis so I know nothing about feeding them... but I have kept mollys in my reef tanks before when I had an algae problem. They did very well ( in fact better than my freshwater ones) and produced mass quantities of live food ( the fry) for my fish.

[Borderjumper]

Ive done slow drips for the mollys.. taking about 6 hours. And they do just fine.

[my2rotties]

Thanks for the help, I am already looking into it further.

[justinl]

Unfortunately, of all the Stomatopods you could have gotten, you may have gotten the worst possible option. L. maculata needs a sandbed at least 1.5X it's own body length; best to plan by its fully grown adult length of 40cm (so a 60cm deep sandbed). if you can't accomodate that, sell/give it away to someone who can.

as for your other questions, most mantids cannot be kept together and you should NEVER mix species; so no you cannot have a smasher in the tank because you will invariably end up with one or both of them dead. L. maculata can form monogamous pairs and one pair in the wild has been under monitoring for about 15 years now! However, unless you initially buy a known mated pair, good luck in making your own. males are rare, females are almost never seen in the trade (because they stay safe in the burrow and the males do most of the hunting) and it is far from guaranteed that they will pair up even if you do manage to find a chick. L. maculata and any other spearing mantis does not need live food, so if you don't want to feed it live food, don't; never feed freshwater fish to a saltwater invertebrate imo. Mantids don't need a whole lot of food... I would feed yours a whole silverside maybe once every 3 days; if there are leftovers, clean them up and feed less next time. as with any aquarium inhabitant, it's largely trial and error.

read. this is from a stomatopod research in Berkeley. ie. reliable info.
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/arthrop...ame=l_maculata

edit:
yes, to make a burrow, this species secretes mucus to get the sand to stick together and not collapse... basically they live in snot holes

edit 2: how do you know it's a girl? did you get a peek to see that it didn't have gonopods (male mantids have two penises)? the fact that you mention proportionally very large spearing arms relative to the body says male to me (at least in this species). plus the rarity of females.

[my2rotties]

I don't know if she is a girl for sure. However, something so ruthless in killing and remorseless in the act, must be female Grendel is a male name anyways, but I liked it for the shrimp. I have no idea if most of my fish are male or female, I just make them into what I feel they are. Judging by the link you gave to me, and what you mentioned she is a he... no big deal.

If he needs more sandbed, then I will give it to him. I did have about 6" of sand in the tank he lives in, but he dug it into tunnels and holes of his own.

I never intended on having a breeding pair. I was just asking if keeping a couple together would be possible since I see it in the LFS all the time. I also have a sump to put a peacock mantis in if I would like to do so.

I have tried silversides but he will only eat the guts and throw away the rest of the fish. When I feed him live food, he will eat the entire fish, but not dead or frozen fish... It's just an observation nothing more. If mollys can be acclimated to marine life, why are they not a good thing to feed if they can become saltwater fish?

I appreciate your imput and advise on my mantis. I want to give him a fantastic home, and make sure to give him the specialized care he requires.

Originally Posted by justinl

Unfortunately, of all the Stomatopods you could have gotten, you may have gotten the worst possible option. L. maculata needs a sandbed at least 1.5X it's own body length; best to plan by its fully grown adult length of 40cm (so a 60cm deep sandbed). if you can't accomodate that, sell/give it away to someone who can.

as for your other questions, most mantids cannot be kept together and you should NEVER mix species; so no you cannot have a smasher in the tank because you will invariably end up with one or both of them dead. L. maculata can form monogamous pairs and one pair in the wild has been under monitoring for about 15 years now! However, unless you initially buy a known mated pair, good luck in making your own. males are rare, females are almost never seen in the trade (because they stay safe in the burrow and the males do most of the hunting) and it is far from guaranteed that they will pair up even if you do manage to find a chick. L. maculata and any other spearing mantis does not need live food, so if you don't want to feed it live food, don't; never feed freshwater fish to a saltwater invertebrate imo. Mantids don't need a whole lot of food... I would feed yours a whole silverside maybe once every 3 days; if there are leftovers, clean them up and feed less next time. as with any aquarium inhabitant, it's largely trial and error.

read. this is from a stomatopod research in Berkeley. ie. reliable info.
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/arthrop...ame=l_maculata

edit:
yes, to make a burrow, this species secretes mucus to get the sand to stick together and not collapse... basically they live in snot holes

edit 2: how do you know it's a girl? did you get a peek to see that it didn't have gonopods (male mantids have two penises)? the fact that you mention proportionally very large spearing arms relative to the body says male to me (at least in this species). plus the rarity of females.

[justinl]

if you're willing to add that much sand (i understand a lot of people aren't), then you're pretty much gold. You don't have to have a 2ft sand bed until it is full grown really... you could just get away with adding over time. that way you won't have to start with a brand new sand bed at one go. just be sure that you do add sand as needed.

try feeding less at a time to get it to eat the whole silverside. also feed a variety of frozens like squid, cuttlefish, prawn, krill, etc. largely easily found at the grocery store. they aren't picky and hungry enough, will eat just about anything. it would be good to soak in selcon or some kind of supplement once in a while. most mantis keepers general rule is at least 3 different frozen foods, cycling between them.

i guess fully acclimated mollies would be okay, though not ideal. they will never have the perfect nutritional content of a damsel for example. plus the acclimation over the period of months just seems like more trouble than it's worth imo, especially since the L. maculata doesn't need live feedings.

for the peacock, look closely into that as well as a large peacock is one that *can* smash glass tanks. tank breaks are rare but do happen. most tank breaks are on the bottom pane as the mantis digs, so lining the bottom with a layer of acrylic scraps/silicone greatly reduces that already somewhat remote chance. minimum of 30g imo. these guys make U-shaped burrows in the rock. as long as it is separate from the L. maculata, all will be well.