N. wennerae Burrowing Habits

[lemures-ex]

Like many mantii my N. wenn closes his burrow up at night and opens it back up in the morning (or when he feels like playing with rocks or hermit crabs at night).

I had some sponges growing on the LR that I put into his tank from a larger tank. I noticed him peeling the sponges off the other day and last night when he was closing his burrow he used the sponges to help hold the sand together in front of the hole. I noticed this morning while he was taking the dam apart that he was pushing the sand out and storing the sponges at the back of his burrow. The burrow is a piece of PVC with an end cap. There is a slightly larger cavity at the rear because the PVC is not inserted all the way into the cap and that is where he is storing the sponges. I was jsut curious if anyone else had any stories about mantii storing things for later consumption, construction, or play.

Jared

[Crawling68]

My larger Smithii, Samus, will haul every snail and hermit into his burrow for examination, pic one, then throw the rest out for later. Its great to watch!

[Gonodactylus]

In the field, N. wennerae (and most Gonodactylids) use a single hard shell or piece of rubble to close. Theywill then fit in any gaps with sand, alage, sponge, etc. This "door" is often stored inside the cavity if their is room. When they don't have access to a suitable piece, they use what they can get starting with gravel and working dow to sand as a last resort.

When animals molt, they ususally do a better job closing and try to camoflauge the entrance by adding in lots of algae, etc.

I've taken time-lapse vido of closing and if you have a video or digital camera that can do time-lapse, it makes for great video.


I and also often thought about doing "square peg in round hole" experiment. The closest I have come is by lining up three or four items of different size out side the entrance and seeing if they can select one that is the right size. Usually they try to drag back all of them at first, but there often is some learning and the home in on the right size. I have not tried to separate size, shape and color pattern. Would be interesting to do.

The only thing that I have found important in this is that there be a fairly constant day night cycle. If there is, they close regularly, if not closing can become variable.

Roy

[lemures-ex]

My mantis is in a temp 5 gallon tank until I set up a larger system. He has no artificial light but he is right by a window that doesn't get direct sunlight. Our water here seems to have very low phosphates as algea is not a problem. I think it makes for a pretty good day/night cycle for him.

[dead beat reef]

I put a small frag of star polyps at the far side of the aqua
pod 12. The wenn took it up to the top and planted it at the
entrance to its home. Great camo. Feed it a small chunk of
meat. Did he eat it? No. Just held it in one claw and waved
it at the damsel he lives with so he could bait and sucker
punch. Its a good thing they dont get real big. They might
take over. More shells great idea. lemures-ex all the best. dbr.

[Thurge]

Hairy, my G. chigra has three pieces of rubble he uses for a door. Every day he opens the door and stores it in his burrow. Its funny to hear him close up because he fits them into place. The coolest part by far is that he doesn't whack away but taps them into place.