wennerae "to your door" from Tampa Bay saltwater

[SoupySteve]

So I placed my order yesterday AM; Richard responded quickly to tell me it would be here today.

The mantis arrived and I opened up the styros - only to find the water frigid (think good beer temperature) and the mantis dead. I e-mailed Richard to see about setting up a way to get a replacement up my way.

I had to run myself to the doctor; when I got home 3+ hours later, I was picking up the packaging to throw away... the mantis was alive!!!
I guess getting as cold as it did, it had pretty much shut itself down. I had left it almost directly under a heat exchange that blows behind our kitchen cabinets.

I'm thinking Jesus would be a great name for my newly acquired stomatopod - as after being dead for 3 hours, HE HAS RISEN!!! :eek2:

I just wanted to post this for the following reasons; 1 - TBS may be the fastest, easiest way for someone to get their hands on a smaller stomatopod; 2 - TBS's customer service is great; any time you get a hand-typed response versus a pre-generated message, you feel important as a customer; 3 - Make sure your inverts are DEAD before you toss 'em!

[Bluemon]

nice. good luck with jesus!

[SoupySteve]

Thanks for the kind words, my daughter and I offered a snail busted with a hammer as a sacrifice just a bit ago!

[gpx1200]

allways,allways,allways try and aclimate your animals even if they look dead warm them up and give them some new water. emt's have a saying about peapole, theyr not dead untill theyr warm and dead

[twiggyb]

When I ordered my O. hav from sealife I thought it was dead too because the water was so cold and the mantis was belly up. I was letting it float and 20 mins later it started wiggling around a little, whew what a relief it was to see it comin around.

[gnasher]

Very cool, and Jesus is an awesome name!

[gozermantis]

When I ordered my O. hav from sealife I thought it was dead too because the water was so cold and the mantis was belly up. I was letting it float and 20 mins later it started wiggling around a little, whew what a relief it was to see it comin around.

Same for me...

[SoupySteve]

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-Z1L4FMPoPkw/TzbhL3P1TkI/AAAAAAAAAwU/jwUHBeFknWw/s640/12+-+1

Here is a pic of the shy mantis who seems to totally dig its barnacle condominium. I'm thinking that is is molting - as I saw FOUR eyes staring back at me this morning!!!

[united417]

hows the wennerae doing?any updates?i am thinking of ordering my own very soon

[SoupySteve]

My mantis is doing just fine! As much as I wanted a peacock mantis, I'm glad I got this smaller guy instead!

I got home from work tonight to discover that "Jesus" found the peppermint shrimp I bought for him quite tasty!

These mantis are awesome; they are more aware of what is going on outside of their tank than anything I've kept in a tank.

[Mwil3]

Cool story. I'm glad you didn't toss him when you found him "dead"....(I probably would have tossed him right away) I'm glad I read this post, thanks for sharing.

I also noticed that my mantis is very intellegent and is definately watching what's going on around her tank.