=Jwin's 9 GALLON MANTIS CUBE - Nano Wave 9

I'm still sad about Princess I may start putting vitamins in mantis food to give my next mantis (and mom's mantis, Bo) the best chance to avoid a bad molt. I don't want that to happen again.

In other news, a friend of mine gave me some really cool looking macro algae that I put in the tank, and I'm loving my reaquascape every time I look at it. I'll get some pics tomorrow.

Also, we're heading back to the LFS tomorrow (looking for a new fish, our firefish died and got eaten by our red serpent star :) because mom wants a new fish. But this is also the LFS where they've given me the "catch it, keep it" permission with their mantis shrimp. There's one mantis I really want in their 55 gallon frag tank. He's bright green, and shares the tank with a pistol and goby pair, and another mantis. But this guy (he's a male) is awesome! he's not shy at all! He comes right up to you to the glass and climbs around on the egg crate. He doesn't bother the other inverts in the tank (so I know he'll leave my uchin and orca alone), and he's a very bright green (like stepho's). Plus, he's used to strangers sticking their face in at him. So, he's my target right now. He's about 1.5 inches long and I want him We had actually noticed him and thought he was super cool before Princess died Maybe it's fate that we should be together.

Anyways if it doesn't work out with catching the green mantis, the LFS has another shipment of live rock coming in soon, and they normally find hitch hiker mantis at the bottom of the rock bag after they've taken the rock out (or they find them in the rock), and they said I could take my pick from any of the mantis they find in there (they get huge rock shipments...huge. Not huge rocks. Just alot of rocks)

Best of all, I get to choose these mantis for free That's a good LFS right there. The owner even decided to show off his favorite mantis in the store's display tanks. He has a 2.5 inch one in a 10 gallon that I had never known was there

I'm in a weird parenthesis mood if you haven't noticed (yeah...that)

 

aw, that's so sad! I just found this thread and read through the whole thing to find out she died

she was def. beautiful

 

Yeah it sucks

But the green/yellow mantis I want at the LFS is awesome. He's definitely smarter than the average mantis, even the owner of the store says so. And now, the owner has taken it as a personal insult that he hasn't been able to catch the guy, so he's determined to catch him

And my grandmother lives in Jacksonville. My mom and her family grew up in miami and jacksonville throughout her life, and my grandparents have been in Jacksonville for longer than I've been alive. I'm pretty sure I've been down there every year of my life Just saying. There's a pretty awesome LFS there we've visited. I think it was Bioreef, Inc. or something like that.

 

Great thread Jwin! I just read the whole thing and am sad for princess . But wish you luck in finding a new mantis friend.... they are amazing!

I am actually anxiously awaiting the arival of mine, he gets here tomorrow! Yay!

 

Oh snap I guess I forgot to update this thread

The LFS captured a mantis for me a few weeks ago He was caught because an employee was moving some rock and the little sucker came out of the rock and popped him. He was only about 0.75" long then, and he was a mottled brown and white coloration. Way cool. So then he molted. And then a few weeks after that he molted again. Now he's about 1.3 inches long and a weird dark green/gray color. He's a very cool critter. Not shy at all, and holy crap he is a fast mantis when he wants to be. Which is why I named him Lambo after the car company and because it has "bo" in the name of it. So our two manti are Bo and Lambo

I actually think we have some videos of him somewhere...

 

Good stuff Jwin!

I get mine tomorrow! I'm excited of course lol

 

Hahaha I definitely understand the excitement If you were to ask me my favorite water animal, I'd immediately say mantis shrimp.

I found a video of my little guy. It's not uploaded onto youtube or anything yet though so I'll take care of that tomorrow

 

thats awesome. and please post the videos. id love to set up a small mantis tank. but i know nothing about them.

As a matter of fact i saw a wicked mantis at my lfs. it had stripes like a zebra, white body/ black striping. again i have no idea if its a smasher or spearer. do you know antything about them?

 

those zebra mantis shrimp are awesome..they're the biggest of all if I remember correctly. They're spearers.

 

Yep Zebra mantis If I were to get a spearer, I'd get a pair of them. They pair for life. They take turns hunting out of their burrow and everything. Awwweeessooommme.

And mantis are actually super easy to care for. Piece of cake.