Triplemom's 14 Biocube mantis tank! What???

Like the mantis!!

How about Francis?

And happy 29th, Mom!

 

As promised

 

thats awesome...ive got my mantis tank all setup for the last month or so but cant find a good mantis anywhere in the state... guess I am gonna have to break down and get it online.

 

Is this a smasher or a spearer? If it is a smasher are you afraid that it will hit the glass of your tank and cause a crack or worse? I just ask because I am interested in getting one for myself.

 

They have a smasher. You don't have to worry about them harming the glass as long as you don't get the really large species and keep them in small tanks that have thin glass.

Awesome video Jwin. That mantis is awesome.

 

nice video

 

Like stepho said, only fully grown Peacocks or above (there are some larger than peacocks) have even a chance of breaking glass. Peacocks can hit glass as thin as 1/4" with no problems, although I personally wouldn't have anything less than 3/8" thick for peace of mind.

This guy is only a 3" long G. Smithii and is a smasher. He may grow 1/2" to 1" longer in his lifetime, but that's a big maybe. So I'm not scared of him hitting the glass at all.

Also, mantis are incredibly smart. You can even tell from the video. We've only had him a few days, and he knows where the food comes from and what it looks like. You can see the part where my mom put just the tongs into the tank thinking he'd go after the tongs, but even then his amazing eyesight and incredible smarts told him there was no food on those tongs. He wasn't fooled one bit. "Come on mom, I'm not stupid...where's the food?" So, something that smart won't just go around hitting everything in sight all willy nilly, including glass. He's hit small rocks out of the way when arranging his den and his cave, and he's hit a snail once but decided getting the weird lady to feed frozen krill to him was an easier way to get food

He's come up to the glass to check out his reflection, and to check out my brother's finger. He hasn't hit the glass (to my knowledge) once.

 

Oh and that comment of me saying "he's cleaning his butt, only inside this time" was because right before we took this video, we walked in on him rolling around in the sand on the left side of the volcano (what we're calling his rocks ) And he was, well, "cleaning his butt". I think. That's what it looked like anyways. He looked alot like a dog, flopping around on his side and back trying to get to his lower regions, and then he saw us and gave an unmistakable look of "OMG I've been found out!" and darted into the rock work. He's a very busy, entertaining boy. Very happy with him.

And our experience with Stomatopod.com was excellent. So, if anyone decides to order a mantis online, go with those guys. The $40+ shipping is pricey, but well worth it.

 

So I am thinking of turning a 20 gallon tank that is laying around into a mantis tank. What kind of filtration, lighting, water movement, etc would I need to make this tank a success for just one such shrimp?

 

This was soooooooooooooo cool! I'm sitting here working (or trying to). I hear him whacking on something and look up. The snail Jwin put in the tank explodes off the rock with sand flying everywhere and I'm thinking, huh? The mantis comes flying out after the snail, while I'm falling over myself trying to grab the camera. Then, he grabs the rather large snail and heads off into his den! Wow!!!!!!!