New peacock

[nikesb4l]

I order her from stomatopod.com. She arived right at 10am. The packaging was amazing 4 bags with chaeto. Billy from stomatopod, does a amazing job, I would like to reccomend buying from him.
I'm waiting on my camera to charge to get some pictures but she is doing very well. She took a swing at a grass shrimp within the fist 2mins LOL. I'm so excitied.

[nikesb4l]

all i got so far
<table style="width:auto;"><tr><td><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/fk2n0-EXlfQz64NjqpxyLw?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_jhPSbYeDAQ0/Sg2bzahmZsI/AAAAAAAAAhM/0BAosReT5W0/s800/0515091233.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right">From <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/Nikesb4l/NewAlbum41409227PM?feat=embedwebsite">New Album 4/14/09 2:27 PM</a></td></tr></table>
camera phone too still waiting on camera to charge.

[gozermantis]

how big?

[nikesb4l]

3 inches

[micstarz]

Reminds me of Tomb Raider!

Congratulations.

[gozermantis]

awesome size! sick peacock mang.

[Koshmar]

Congratulations! Someday I'd like to get a peacock, everyone seems to love them.

[nikesb4l]

Shes beautiful, there amazing animals, Mines been hunting grass shrimp all morning and she can't catch them. My N. wennerae can hit them but i dont think he kills them.

[nikesb4l]

For the last few hours shes been just laying on her back moving all her pleopods, lat night I put a quarter sized coarse handed lady crab in there and it was missing its claws. She killed it and ate it. I didnt get to see. Maybe shes just full and is resting. My water salinity is at 33 1.024, I have a skimmer too. Any ideas I got her yesterday morning, im worried.

[nikesb4l]

<table style="width:auto;"><tr><td><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/Vk1-5DoTkY3Hnmu7V2fPJQ?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_jhPSbYeDAQ0/Sg75jmFPAEI/AAAAAAAAAhU/ZRnCOm6IuL4/s800/0516091332b.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right">From <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/Nikesb4l/NewAlbum41409227PM?feat=embedwebsite">New Album 4/14/09 2:27 PM</a></td></tr></table>
makes me so sad. She moves spots every once and awile.

[Mentat]

That doesn't look right. What are water parameters and other organisms in tank. What acclimation procedure did you use?

[Tangalong]

Mentat's right, nikesb41, check everything...how long did you acclimate her for? What about the difference in ph in shipping water and your tank (easy to forget to check ph),did you acclimate her for warmth first thing in tank water? When did you change your water last? What else in in there that has possible toxic to Stomatopod elements? Stinging corals, etc? I would do a partial water change NOW!!!

[Tangalong]

nikes...are you sure your tank was cycled??? Didn't you just recently get your HOB? How long was the LR and were did you get it? I mean, from another tank...was it just purchased? And what about the sand? Usually all these thing together take about 3 weeks to level out to be stable...if not, as Dr. Roy was saying, a nitrate spike can happen so fast, you miss it, and it will kill your stomatopod.. he/she is lovely and I do so hope she makes it. Keep hoping and it helps to write everything you did to the tank down so you can see what you might have missed. I do.

Good luck
-------------------

Curly

[nikesb4l]

This is a different tank that has been up and running for a long time. The water is fine, Like i said she was walking around the tank all day yesterday, I left for a few hours just before and before i left i turned lights off.when i came back and she was still on her back I went closer to the tank and put my finger on the glass and she fliped over and moved alittle. Now shes staying in that spot. Theres a halloween hermit crab that lives with her. this tank is where my N. wennerae was in but i down sized him to the 10 gal. The sand in the tank was bio.active sand and i got it a few months ago.

[nikesb4l]

should I get some water and do a water change?

[Mentat]

If all water parameters including: ammonia, nitrites, pH, temp, salinity check ok and you did a proper acclimating based on the differences between shipping water and your tank, there is a couple things you might want to look at. Normally Mantis belong on their legs, not their back.

Yes, I would get ready (mix water, etc.) and conduct a large water change if water ain't right or that tank, it's substrate, or the LR have ever being treated with any medications that is harmful to invertebrates. Make sure change water matches your tank pH and salinity, do not want to stress Mantis more. If there are any animals (including feeders) in tank that could be a threat to mantis while not to par; recommend remove them now.

Also, is there a source of VOC fumes in area where tank is? Mantis are extremely sensitive to them and even small amounts on air can be noxious.

[nikesb4l]

I did i 5 gall water change, I can do a 10, Down the street from my house they have water on tap thats protien skimmed and UV sterilized. shes standing back on her feet but she hasn't moved.

[nikesb4l]

Shes still in the same spot. Ugh im really upset i hope shes okay. I would be devastated if she didn't make it.
-thanks for the support guys i really appreciate it. any other sudjestions?

[nikesb4l]

....she died. sorry guys. i'm not sure what I did. I compleatly devastated. I'm calling it a night. =[

[Tangalong]

Can someone tell me what a "lady" crab is?

[nikesb4l]

its a type of swimming crab looks like a blue claw but there shell is not as wide. there more rounded.

[micstarz]

I'm so sorry. If it makes you feel better, I've been through it too.

Mine went from this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRqp58wNW2U

To this
http://photos-b.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-snc1/v3736/231/6/565794390/n565794390_1712201_7261299.jpg

[Mentat]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15023933#post15023933 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by nikesb4l
....she died. sorry guys. i'm not sure what I did. I compleatly devastated. I'm calling it a night. =[
Sorry. I would try and pinpoint what caused death before replacing Mantis.

Recommend look at questions Tangalong & myself asked and see if any sound a bell. Thinking it has to be something in water or LR, or the acclimation process and stress. Recently I lost a Leaf fish on second day of QT. No idea what happened for a while, but after reading a lot about them found out Leaf Fish are allergic to a medication had used previously in that QT and it probably leached out of substrate and rocks.

I see question about "Lady Crab;" is that unrelated or where there predatorial preys in tank that could hurt a newly arrived & stressed Mantis?

[Tangalong]

Mentat, just prior to Stomatopod falling ill, nikes said she ate a quarter-sized lady crab that had no claws. I had never heard of one of those and wondered if it were FW or what or if crab was carrying something toxic to the mantis.

nikes, I am so sorry...hope we find out the problem. She sounded like she was doing so well. The cause will probably show up. Just keep looking.


----------------------

Curly

[Mentat]

IRT Lady Crab, what was the source? If in tank for long, do not think it would poison Mantis.

[Tangalong]

nikes..this is important...from the time you opened the bag, exactly what did you do? Did you empty her and shipping water into another container? Did you then measure water salinity in bag and ph and start drip acclimation? How long did it take? The reason, is, a rapid change in either salinity/ph can devastate an invertabrate. it is important to keep their temp constant also and make sure they are getting fresh oxygen as the bag's is polluted from being closed during travel. I had to shorten Bree's acclimation because she kept climbing up the air tubing and almost getting out, but still had enough time for her to adjust...I was very worried though.


From this, I learned to use a bigger container and cover next time.

We all make mistakes.

----------------

Curly

[nikesb4l]

there pretty common to NC water. the small ones just swim and you can scoop them up with a dip net. They only thing i can think of is maybe there was some toxins on the pvc but the tubes said drinking on the side, and I rinsed them out. I dont add anything except for some ph buffer and that was the tiniest about. I have added liquid calcium before too.

I don't think it was the acclimation process because she was very active when i fist put her in the tank. She was trying to catch grass shrimp. she seemed very healthy. It must have happend over night. cause the next morning she just got worse throughout the day.
-i Just let her bag float in the tank. untill the temp was the same. then i poured her and the water into a bucket then I placed her into the tank. I guess the process was not the correct one. I was overly excitied, I never drip acclamated anything before. I deff going to start.

[Tangalong]

What happened to my post?

[Mentat]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15025951#post15025951 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by nikesb4l
...I don't think it was the acclimation process because she was very active when i fist put her in the tank. She was trying to catch grass shrimp. she seemed very healthy. It must have happend over night. cause the next morning she just got worse throughout the day.
-i Just let her bag float in the tank. untill the temp was the same. then i poured her and the water into a bucket then I placed her into the tank. I guess the process was not the correct one. I was overly excitied, I never drip acclamated anything before. I deff going to start.
IMO this Mantis death was probably related to acclimation, or for better words, the lack of it (only temp was matched). Obviously, without comparing the actual water in shipping bag and the one in your tank it's impossible to say with certainty.

The reason we acclimate Mantis (or other SW organisms) is so that if there are differences in salinity, pH, etc. they can go over it slowly without a stressful shock. That the Mantis ate or looked alive right after release does not mean it's physiology and all systems were all ok. Acclimation becomes more important when shipping is involved, since the water quality in that small volume can go out of specs very fast and be very different to your good tank water.

Again, no way to tell for sure, but would recommend you read a bit on drip acclimation procedure and use it on next Mantis. It's easy, there is no science to it, and very cheap to set-up. Will need a small bucket or container, some airline tubing, an air valve (set drip 1-4 drops per second depending on species and volume of water in bucket), and a small air pump with air bubbler.

Sorry again for the loss and better luck with next one.

[Tangalong]

Most likely, I agree....but to prevent it, nikes, it could have been the crab also...anything fresh caught and given to your stomatopod, or , for that matter, any fish...should be caught far out from the shore to avoid transmitting toxins they can carry or disease. Also, they should be QT'd. A shame, as it seems so good for them and so accessable. I keep Bree's snails and crabs in a QT tank for a couple of weeks before she gets them.

Chin up, buddy, a lesson learned well is not forgotten and won't be made again.

You are brave to have gone through this with us. I commend you for that. We are here to help and support each other.

------------------

Curly

[justinl]

Do you have the params of both your tank and shipping water at the time? Differences is the big issue and it would put all of our minds at ease to actually see the numbers from your tank. No offense, it's just that a lot of times people say their params are "OK" or "fine" when something is actually off. for the record it is always good practice to take a sample from the shipping water before acclimation. That way if something goes wrong, you can test afterwards to eliminate the possibility that it was simply soemthing that happened in relation to the shipping water. IMO just temp and pH matching is sufficient for fish if your params are known to be close to the lfs'; inverts are a lot more sensitive to salinity though so invert acclimation must take that into consideration.

also, when the bag was floating in the tank to temp match, was the bag sealed? how long had the bag been in transit? was there much air in the bag? Just trying to rule out suffocation via low dissolved oxygen.

I'd also like to know the history of the lady crab. that said, the mantis was exhibiting the laying on the back behaviour prior to introducing the crab wasn't it?

[Tangalong]

justinl, she ate the crab the night before...that's why I am inclined to think she got sick from it.