[yankeereefer]

Picked up the peacock yesterday that my fiancee got me for x-mas.

I'm a little bummed b/c it appears to have some shell disease going on. This mantis has been in the lfs for a couple of months and I don't think it was fed correctly or enough. It ate a couple pieces of krill today that I had soaked in Selcon.

I have a question regarding molts in O.s. - Can you tell when a mantis is getting ready to molt other than behavior, like does it's appearance change?

My peacock (yet unnamed) all of a sudden has a light white "stripe" running up the middle of it's back - It was not there yesterday and I don't recall seeing it earlier today while working on the tank.

LFS owner can't tell me if / when it molted while at the store. My fiancee thinks that maybe they're "rub" marks - I have a 2.5" "Y" PVC burrow under the LR in the tank.

The mantis has been busy engineering doors for the 3 openings - This is behavior that I typically see of my smithii prior to molt. Of course, it may just be personalizing it's new tank.

Lights are off now, so I can't post pics. Will try and do so tomorrow.

Thanks in advance for any input concerning the white stripe.

Ryan