Bob the mantis needs your thoughts!

he is actually still molting...I went to check on him today when I got home and he is still shedding his shell. This is what he did last time. It seemed like he had pieces of shell that he could not get rid of. He buried himself in his den for over a week and a half and kept bringing out new pieces of shell. If you ever saw a mantis molt you know what is fresh shell and what is old shell.

Today when I went in there he came out and threw a piece of his body shell out of his den. So...off goes the lights again! He did take a piece of krill last night which was a little bit of a surprise to me...so he must still have his strength thankfully

 

Hope he pulls through!! I love mantis shrimps, Hmm, I still got that 10 gallon laying around....;D. So he is half molted? That sounds really strange, got any recent pics?

 

Good luck with the mantis!

 

Any updates?

 

That's really weird that he was out all of the way when molting. Princess, my Neogonodactylus Wennerae, always closes up her den entirely when she's molted. She stays in there for 3-5 days (stressful, because you can't see them or feed them or anything during that time) and then she comes out looking huge.

Maybe Bob is getting old? because 10 inches for a mantis is freakishly huge. Some have been reported longer in the wild, but still, it's big. Especially because my manits is only about 1 3/8" long

Princess flipped over onto her back to look at me when I was looking at her at the LFS, and she's done it several times since then. It's like she's laying down to stare at me. But she's never shown hide nor hair during a molt.

I hope Bob makes it!

 

He has now molted the smasher shell yesterday. I can not figure it out...I do worry that he is getting old and near the end of his time. What is really weird is not only is he still molting over a week and a half, he is still coming out of his den and is eating. That is what I dont understand now!

He lost his body shell, his swimmettes all last week. Then he lost his tail end of last week and his smashers yesterday.

His appetite is really well still...he is taking about 4-5 krill a day (I feed every other day) Up until the molt before last he would completely close his den off, stay locked up for a week and then come out and eat snails galore. So far he has not touched his turbos that I placed in his tank for snacks. I have the lights on again but other then feeding him....I am keeping it quite and dark for him

 

he is getting to old to be ashamed of the changes his body undergoes. ;D

 

I wish you the best for him. As unusual as it may be, I think you could at least take it as encouraging that he's eating.