Mantis and problems eating?

[modemfox]

I have a mantis that I caught wild here in the gulf of mexico. Its a smasher and he or she is a redish orange color. Anyway I have it living in my fuge where I keep a bunch of exiled crabs and hermit crabs and glass shrimp. Anyway, I haven't seen it eat and it has been out checking out its surroundings alot so i figured i would see if it was hungry. I put a few hermit crabs in its cave and it came out and tried to smash them with no luck. Then i put a mithrax crab in front of its cave and it drug it in tried to smash it but didn't do any damage and the crab crawed away. So i shelled the crab and then he drug it in and proceeded to eat it. My question is, why couldn't it smash them hard enough? Do they need time to become good smashers? or will i always have to kill its food for it.

[rwhhunt]

try frozen krill or silversides

[fras]

How big is it? The bigger they are the more powerful their strike, if it's still small it might not be strong enough yet, keep trying.

[Psyire]

If he's recently molted he might not be strong enough either... from what I've read.

[modemfox]

wouldn't really know about the moulting. I caught him wild.

[Fairytail]

How did you manage to catch him in the wild?

Is he reddish with kinda whitish stripes? If so he might be a Neogonodactylus wennerae and in my experince so far, don't have the stranth to crack shells much thicker then a babysnail....

[modemfox]

No white stripes. Just an orangish red color on whole body. The little flaps on the side of his head have brown as an accent around them and a little in the center. I caught him by picking up his rocki and flushing him with bottled water on the beach then i put him in saltwater and took him home to acclimate hime to my tank.

[Agu]

It's probably an n. wennerae from your description and location of collection.

How big is it ? if it's small it may not have the power to kill large food yet.


Is one claw substantially larger than the other claw ? You might have a pistol shrimp if one claw is larger than the other claw.

fwiw,

[modemfox]

No its not a pistol. I have pistols though. Trust me I know its a mantis. (s)he's about 1 1/2" long. ID'ing things isn't a problem. I don't know why everyone keeps asking if its a pistol. Working in a fish store I see quite a few mantis and pistol shrimp to know the difference.

[modemfox]

This is not a pic of my mantis, but (s)he looks exactly like this but a little darker:

http://www.imagequest3d.com/ImageFolio3_files/gallery/aquatic/arthropoda/RGS00634.jpg

[Agu]

Pic looks a lot like my n wennerae.


Maybe it isn't hungry, doesn't recognize the food you provide, or is too stressed from being collected. They're pretty tough and can go for extended periods without eating. I wouldn't worry about it yet.

jmo,