Zebra mantis

[my2rotties]

I know they don't need live foods, but boy does this shrimp like to hunt. I knew when the LFS gave him to me, I might have to feed live. I don't mind buying a damsel fish once a week and silversides and my puffer's mix of food for the rest. I put three damsels in the tank and noticed one would go missing about once a week. I only saw him kill once, and really don't know how he gets them sometimes (aise of letting one sit on his head for days).

The mantis is in my fuge so I don't mind adding sand as he grows. I'm just scared to stick my hands in there. He knows the difference between hands and a feeding stick, and what I read about their eyesight is amazing.

They are awesome creatures and are fun to watch. Mine really is active and swims around the tank when I come down. I have wanted a mantis for a very long time, but did my homework on the smashers, not the clubbers. I feel the spearers are a little work, but worth it in the end. I get to see him all the time, and he comes and watches me test my water and do water changes. He attacks my tank magnet when I need to clean the algae on the glass in his tank if it gets too close to him.

I will add some sand shortly but he gets really mad when I do anything in the tank since it sometimes damages his tunnels. I have tons of pods in the rock with the shrimp and swap them back and forth to my display for my Mandarine fish. I have had the little guy over a year now, and he is not the smartest of fish. I want to make sure he can easily find pods when he wants them, which he is always doing.

We will be making a divider for the peacock when he comes. The fuge is made form tempered glass so I hope that might help things. I have read they can break glass, and that would really suck. I don't know how long mantis shrimp can live out of water for, but I would be scared to death to try to catch and collect the zebra mantis on my basement floor. I saw a guy on utube picking his huge zebra mantis up, and I can't say I would be doing that myself. I noticed Grendel has spears on the back too, and can do a split second backward flip if I get too close. I don't know if you can tame them, but I would never trust him not to nail me. I think that would be a painful lesson, as well as getting him unstuck from my hand or wrist.

Grendel shed just before coming home and I am having difficulty in finding how often they do shed. I did read they sometimes die due to difficulties doing this, and want to make sure I don't lose him when it happens. Do you know often they shed or what to look for? When I brought him home I knew he would need special care and I want to make sure I am giving him all that he needs to be healthy, which he appears to be at this point.

Thanks for the help.

Originally Posted by 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.