My new mantis tank

[born]

Originally Posted by daniella3d

A lava lamp? was she watching it?

The mussel I feed her were frozen from fresh mussel as I don't have fresh one for now. I can feed frozen since she seems to like it anyway.

what hapened to your mantis?

I like to believe she did. she'd poke her head out of the cave and sit there in the direction of the lamp. I just read articles from "Roy Cardwell" from uni of berkley on certain things to stimulate them more. The laser pointer definitely did work too

I use to buy mussels with the shell still attached on one side and put them upside down so she could work out her smashers a little and also use the shells for her burrow.
I believe she might have had a very small case of shell rot, but also I had her in a Red sea max and the skimmer wasnt keeping up with the nitrates, so ultimately I believe it was the affect of nitrates that made her pass away.
I use to get fiddler crabs from pisces and do live feedings, or I would spend about 5mins on each tank in LFS's looking at them seeing if there were any hitchhiker crabs. A lot of the time I actually found crabs, especially big black ones and the LFS would either just give them to me if I knew the guy, or sell them for like 5$. Also I'd put chromis in my tank, theyd usually survive but sometimes when she was really hungry it was a good hunt and made her more active

[born]

Oh and this may sound stupid but, let your mantis hit you once! to this day I regret not letting her hit me to see what it felt like. lol

[daniella3d]

lol! huuu I think I'll pass

Especially that smashers also have a small spear that is still big enough to go through a finger, if she decide to use it. That should hurt! She made it clear by showing them to me once while she was cleaning herself.

I was brave enough to let my pet tarentula spider sleep on my neck but I am quite afraid of letting the mantis hit me.

Originally Posted by born

Oh and this may sound stupid but, let your mantis hit you once! to this day I regret not letting her hit me to see what it felt like. lol

[FishyFishy!]

She's lookin great! Very nice coloration. Great pics too!

[daniella3d]

wow, do you really have all those tanks? that's an impressive list!

Originally Posted by FishyFishy!

She's lookin great! Very nice coloration. Great pics too!

[Scythanith]

I used to give my male peacock a selection of non-reef safe crabs from when Colby would get in shipments. Anything that dropped from corals or live rock he'd save for me. Also, turbo snails as well as a couple cheaper fish added movement and eventually he ate them. For the regular feedings I used thawed shrimp and clams. He went crazy for them.

Keep her water clean, those feedings pollute water quickly!

Enjoy,
Scott

[FishyFishy!]

Originally Posted by daniella3d

wow, do you really have all those tanks? that's an impressive list!

haha, no thats my list from the start of my saltwater hobby. All have been shut down except a couple.

[lastlight]

that thing is gorgeous. i've always been interested in keeping one in a small tank but they sound quite pricey to feed.

[daniella3d]

pricy to feed? not so far. I buy saltwater snails for human consumption at Kim Phat store. I pay 1.50$ for around 30 that can last a bit

As for other food, it's not so expensive to give a tawed shrimp either. I also buy fresh mussel cut them in half and freeze them.

Originally Posted by lastlight

that thing is gorgeous. i've always been interested in keeping one in a small tank but they sound quite pricey to feed.

[Coralgurl]

I saw my first mantis a couple weeks ago at Concept and they are so unbelievably cool looking creatures! Yours is beautiful and I love the tank set up you have!! Good luck with her, sounds like a bit of a character already!!