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Feclar
12/02/2008, 04:04 AM
Slightly concerned at this point

Tiny peacock mantis, 2.5" now I think

My mantis is at work, over thanksgiving I fed him on Wednesday then went in on Sunday to feed and change water (long stretch for him)

He abandoned his burrow and formed some weird sand tunnel using a piece of rock that touched the back plastic of the tank, you can see all the way thru this tunnel to the other side as it runs along the back of the tank, it is also not very long, smaller then his L-Shaped rock tunnel, his old burrow was on the sand, the rock created a cave, he had done extensive rework of this burrow.

He had moved 60% of the sand in the tank to the back corner where the water vents thru to the filtration, now the lowest sand level is about 1/2" and the corner he has highest point is about 3" of sand, he had built the sand up in the front of the tank near his earlier burrow to about 2" of sand, typically the entire tank is 1.5" of sandbed

He was approx 40% more active than I have ever seen him, creepy to see him so often and he seems more aggressive.

He was harassing a long time inhabitant a tube anemone to the point that the anemone never came out of the tube all day

The disturbing part thou is that he would swim towards the left wall (closest wall to his burrow) and then halfway up the wall and then smack the glass and swim away, he did this atleast once an hour, different spots of the glass

I am concerned he is smacking the glass and would like to deter that.


I have been wanting to redo the rock work, now I am thinking of adding more sand to raise the level to 3" across the entire tank and reorganizing the rocks so he goes back to his original burrow and actually just replacing all the rocks with one giant rock on top of a reverse Y shaped 2" pvc pipe.

Not sure if I should do this because he may be preparing for a molt, I have not noticed him molt in the 6ish months I have had him, have seen him close up his burrow 100% atleast twice thou but only over night, usually he leaves the door open


Opinions?

Wildinside
12/02/2008, 01:09 PM
Sounds like he is about to molt. My peacock molts overnight the same way. If I am not paying attention I may miss the molt altogether. Otherwise he likes to keep his door open for the most part. The increased aggression is a typical pre-molt symptom. nothing to worry about imo.

J2FcM
12/02/2008, 03:44 PM
Sounds exactly like my G. Smithii.... dumping sand everywhere, and anywhere. burying everything, digging obnoxious sand tunnels, smashing in the back of the bio cube, throwing around chunks of rock, and running laps around the tank.....


very annoying.

sabazerehi
12/05/2008, 12:30 AM
definitely molting and since it's a smaller mantis he should be able to do it quickly and somewhat easily. however, i would leave the rock work alone and for a few weeks after the mantis has molted, it takes them some time to get back to normal. i try not to mess with anything when my peacock is molting, i don't even do water changes, it's a very fragile time for them

J2FcM
12/05/2008, 12:36 PM
Yeah, all told Motoko acted psycho for about a week, then disappeared for about 3-5 days (not sure) then rarely came out and looked much brighter in color, and obviously was "soft"... after a while her color returned and she began mashing hermits.