Found and caught a mantis, what to do with her?

[ACBlinky]

I'm stunned, this was a one in a million find. I was walking past my tank to go into the kitchen, when something caught my eye. A small greenish-brown creature was snaking its way out of one hole in the LR and down into another, and something in my brain screamed MANTIS!!! Suddenly I understood why my crabs and snails are disappearing...

I ran over to the tank, grabbed the rock as quickly as I could, and placed it on the floor (thankfully we don't have carpets). I could only hope the shrimp was still in the rock and hadn't jumped ship as I was taking the rock out. I ran to get a bucket and put the rock in it, hoping the shrimp would come out. After 10 minutes on dry land there no sign of anything in or on the rock other than the rather upset zoas, so I mixed up some SW at 1.035 and thought I'd try flushing it out. Worked like a charm! I poured the SW over the rock and out dropped a tiny mantis

I'm calling my mantis 'she' because it's tiny and I can't see anything sticking out after the third pair of walking legs, but I know that it might not be possible to sex the shrimp properly until she's larger. She's in a bucket with an airstone right now, because to be honest, I'm not sure what to do with her. Would it be best to put her in my sump? I have a section with some rubble and nothing else, and to get back into the display she'd have to get over baffles, through the pump, along pipes, it's basically impossible.

I have a tank set up as a 'pest paradise', with some larger crabs (~1.5") that hitchhiked in, a few mushrooms and other corals, and I'd put her there but I'm afraid she'd kill the hermits and snails and injure or kill my crabs - they're hitchhikers and destructive, but I'm very attached to both of them. Would she be safe there, or rather would they be safe from her? She's only about 1.5" from nose to tail right now, but I'm guessing she's going to get a lot bigger than that.

Can anyone advise me what to do with her, and what species she might be? I looked at the list and think maybe she's a Gonodactylaceus (graphurus maybe?) but I'm so new to mantises, I really have no idea what to look for regarding distinguishing characteristics between species.

Here are some pictures, not the greatest, but I'm using an old camera and did my best.









Thanks in advance for any advice - I really want to keep her and make sure she's happy

[gemini aquarius(t)]

set up a ten

[ACBlinky]

LOL well, yes, she may have her own tank in the near future, but I meant what to do with her NOW

I put her in the sump with the rubble for now, for lack of a better place. She's cruising around, moving small rocks and shells. There's no sand, but hopefully she doesn't mind - I found her about 20" above the sand in my display, so I guess she's comfortable in rockwork at least part of the time.

I'm thinking of setting up a small acrylic tank for her, but want to ID the species first so I know how big she'll need her house to be

[Pea-brain]

A ten should be fine. Most gonodactylids stay small enough so a ten is plenty of room. I wouldn't expect it to get bigger than 3". I would worry that the crabs might kill the mantis. If you can put a larger piece of LR in with the rubble for it to burrow in. An acrylic isn't necessary BTW. The only mantises big enough to smash glass are at least 4" long, counting the extra powerful G. chiragra, or 5 inches long for just about any other large species (my guess).

Dan

[reefshadow]

Bumping... Can anyone suggest an ID on this little one?

[Pea-brain]

Errr....I don't believe this is a neogonodactylid....maybe. Was this Fijan, Floridian or other live rock?

Dan

[littleme1969]

Its identical to one I have found is some live rock..
Mantis ID
I also have a small black one.. still waiting on ID.
Would be interested to see what yours is IDed as

[Lehman]

Littleme your brown mantis is a g. viridis according and the black one is either a g. viridis or g. smithii according to Dr Roy. The only way to be sure on the second one is to look at the meral spots and see wha color they are.

[ACBlinky]

Pea-brain - I've got LR from Fiji, Indonesia, Tonga and a bunch that came from somewhere unknown (LFS staff couldn't tell me the source). If I had to guess, I'd say I think this little girl/guy came in on some Fiji or Tonga, because that's what makes up the majority of my rock and it's the most porous - the unidentified stuff is, for the most part, fairly dense. The rock I found him/her in was Tonga Kaelini, but that likely doesn't mean anything - she could have moved from her rock into any other one in the tank over the last year.

Do you have any idea what species this might be, even the family it's in? I can do some research (have been) but it's easier to do if I have a starting point and I'm not at all knowledgeable about these animals yet.

And... I hate to sound dumb, but I just can't find this info anywhere. What is the meral spot?

[reefshadow]

Here's a very good picture of a stomatopod performing a threatening "meral spread display" that clearly shows the location of the meral spots.

http://blueboard.rimlife.com/mantis/bio/bluff.htm

I would have just posted the pic but I don't want to infringe on anyones CR.

I know Dr Roy will just pick up mantises and examine them but that is way too brave for me. I love mine but i'm too chicken errrr... poop. I doubt if yours could really hurt you at that size though. So if you're less of a girly girl than I am this may be something you want to do. Or not, lol.

Dr Roy may be able to ID yours w/o a description of the meral spots though. Where are you, good Dr.?

[ACBlinky]

OH!! That's where they are! Thanks so much for that

I would have to find her in order to pick her up, but I'm willing to do it - she's just a little gaffer, and if she does hurt me, well, it's my own fault! I actually had her in a fish net and very gently held her between two fingers just so she'd stay upside down and not run out of the net while I transferred her from bucket to refugium, and she didn't put up a fuss at all. Wish I'd taken the opportunity to try and see her spots then!

She's disappeared into a ~!lb piece of LR topped with a clump of halimeda that I gave her to hide in - rubble didn't seem enough, she did find a large (to her) shell that she tried out for a while but now AFAIK she's in a hole in the rock. She's so little that if she curls up she's only about the size of a nickel, and she's only about 1/4" across, so she can fit into some pretty tight spaces. Not only that, she's camo-coloured and blends right into the rockwork

I'll get in there tomorrow, and hopefully I can find her and remove her without scaring the proverbial pants off her, check her spots and get her back into her house before she can hurt me or even knows what happened.

One more question... I've been reading (and reading and reading), and have seen people suggest things like mysis for feeding mantises this small, rather than chunks of fish or shrimp. Because I don't know exactly where she is, I've been placing 10-12 mysis into the sump every day - they float around and land all over the place. I figure she'll find one if she really gets hungry, and what she doesn't eat the bristle worms are all over in a flash. Does this sound appropriate? Will she kill pods as well? There are some absolutely gargantuan amphipods in the sump, over 1/4" long, that would make a good meal if she's so inclined...

[Thurge]

She will probably take pods, and find mysis. Keep an eye on the tank and you will probably figure out what rock it has made home. Then you can probably move it forward where you can see the mantis and target feed it.

[Pea-brain]

If I remember right Dr. Roy said to grab the animal and hold it by its rapts. Don't hesitate cause then your introuble. Just grab it and hold it down by its rapts and put it on a paper towel or something, continuing holding the animal down with a finger or something. I wouldn't try it without a better explanation or a link to the post he posted it in though!

Dan