Mantis Molting

[Moogled]

My little bugger has FINALLY closed the entrance to his burrow after nearly month (maybe more) in his new tank.

He hasn't molted since but now this behaviour has sparked my curiousity as to what he's scheming.

He has a spot of shell disease so I hope he molts ASAP. If and when he does decide to molt, I've read that I should leave them alone to do their thing with 0% disturbances.

What usually happens during a mantis molt and what can I expect?

[bv_reefer]

-do what ur brain says iz right.....behold the power....

[Moogled]

Woke up today and found the body/skeleton of the mantis shrimp.

Not exactly sure which one it is, but I'm assuming it's the exoskeleton since the mantis will most likely throw the exoskeleton out of its burrow.

[bv_reefer]

-So moogled what do u do 2 keep ur tank @ a reasonable
temperature. My friend thought of a simple one but a
pretty reasonable one, putting a frozen 2-litre water bott-
le in the sump but I'm not planning on using a sump so wh- would u suggest?? cuz the heats gettin' umbearable 2 say
@ the least!

[Aquattro]

hmm, I've read that a mantis will always eat their molt, so you shouldn't ever see it. Never saw one from any of mine, but maybe I read wrong?

[Moogled]

-So moogled what do u do 2 keep ur tank @ a reasonable
temperature. My friend thought of a simple one but a
pretty reasonable one, putting a frozen 2-litre water bott-
le in the sump but I'm not planning on using a sump so wh- would u suggest?? cuz the heats gettin' umbearable 2 say
@ the least!

Overheating is not an issue for me nor have I dealt with it in the past.

hmm, I've read that a mantis will always eat their molt, so you shouldn't ever see it. Never saw one from any of mine, but maybe I read wrong?

That's true, but I also read one of Roy Caldwell's articles that when a mantis shrimp develops shell disease, you feed it and maintain tank quality until it molts and then subsequently remove the molt so that it can't eat it, hopefully preventing the disease from being reintroduced.

[justinl]

usually they will either bury and eat it later or just eat it right away, regardless whether or not it is infected with the shell disease. They will not eat the hardest parts like the smashers though... those are the only pieces of exoskeleton i have ever found.

in your case, since the mantis was so accomodating, I would remove that infected exoskeleton asap (before the mantis realises it hasnt eaten it yet).

Dont bother it until it shows its face. when you do feed it, feed lightly, and only feed once every 3 days. this somewhat reduced feeding diet will ensure the mantis stays active... if you feed to satiation immediately after a molt, they'll get lazy. soak the frozen feedings in a supplement. dont feed hard shelled food like snails crabs and hermits for a while... it may hurt the mantis when it tries to strike with a still-soft rap.

if you want, you can reduce photoperiod although that isnt really necessary. avoid doing water changes and dont stir up the sand too much. basically yeah, leave the mantis alone as much as possible and definitely do NOT open up the burrow yourself to taker a peek. there's a few people who did that and their mantids died shortly after.

[Moogled]

Well, I guess it was my mistake.

The "skeleton" I fished out turned out to be the carcass of the mantis. He r d34d.

[Aquattro]

Sorry to hear that!