mantis

[hobogato]

well, i just spent an hour carefully chiselling small bits of rock off of one of my liverock shelves to get this little guy out. christy wants to keep him, so i put him in my frag tank. not very good pics, but he is dark red with some emerald green spots. any ideas on what type he is before i go searching (just in case some one knows off hand)?

[SBreef]

Ace,

go over to RC, and check the Mantis threads for ID, since you know what it looks like.

[hobogato]

i did a little searchin, and it looks like it is not a peacock mantis. this is pretty much what he looks like, only he is much darker

http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/arthropoda/crustacea/malacostraca/eumalacostraca/royslist/species.php?name=g_smithii

purple spot mantis.

[brewercm]

I was thinking peacock from the description you gave. Their colors will change (lighten and darken) depending on their mood. I had a lime green one once that would lighten up quite a bit when I'd mess with him and probably was making him mad.

[blueboy]

it's probably a cilliata, they have many color variations, including dark red. grimreefers is a great site for mantis info.

[oceancube]

how did you know you had one? i hear some cracking noises at night kinda loud, but never seen anything, alot of my snails are gone but all my fish are okay????hummmmm

[::pete::]

how did you know you had one? i hear some cracking noises at night kinda loud, but never seen anything, alot of my snails are gone but all my fish are okay????hummmmm

Thats one sign ...

[hobogato]

well, we were lucky enough to find both a mantis and a pistol shrimp. the pistol is still in the tank somewhere, but i was lucky enough to see the mantis early yesterday morning before the big lights came on. i heard the usual cracking sound, but just thought it was the pistol that we already knew about, then i noticed the rocks "smoking" after a loud crack - and knew it was a mantis. on closer inspection, he was whacking the rock and the peeking out to inspect his work. there is a pile of empty hermit shells and snail shells on the sand directly under and down current from his rock.

[jason]

Thats exactly how I knew I had a mantis, "cracking sound and smoking rock". I would search for it at night but I had no luck. It eventually became comfortable and started showing himself. I was then able to trap it. I have video of it getting away from the trap. I would like to share the video but it is 160M. If anybody knows a way I can share this let me know.

[christerrell2k3]

you can try ClipShack, its automatically downsized my videos.

http://www.clipshack.com/Home.aspx

[jason]

Try this link to view the mantis shrimp. The video is poor and it is 3:30. I walked away and when I returned the mantis shrimp was in the trap.

a href="http://www.clipshack.com/Clip.aspx?key=3B32B6E882F588F5"><img src="http://www.clipshack.com/ClipLinkThumb.aspx?id=3B32B6E882F588F5" border="0"></a>

[jason]

Oppps I dont think that worked. Go to clipshack.com and search for Aquarimu Mantis shrimp.

[jason]

http://www.clipshack.com/Clip.aspx?key=3B32B6E882F588F5

Try this link

[Ram_Puppy]

I sure wish you guys would start posting your nifty videos and pictures on the maast gallaries, my company blocks all that stuff.