G Chiragra owners please

[rachel060186]

Hey guys,

Today I received a Chiragra when I had in fact ordered a Scyllarus. I really don't mind what Mantis I received as long as it was quite active around the tank, unfortunately I have heard that they are usually quite recluse.

I was wondering if any of you had a Chiragra which is quite active and confident/happy around the tank, or whether you only get to see their eyes peering out of their burrows.

I would love to know your opinions on your Chiragra and what you think are great about them.

Thanks in anticipation.

x

[Koshmar]

My first mantis was a chiragra falsified as a peacock. Loved that big guy none the less. The key to appreciating a chiragra is to always remember you have a hard core smashing tank under all that reclusiveness. And yes, mine was reclusive. He always watched me, constantly peeking out of his cave observing my every move. Out of the four stomatopods I've kept I can say that my chiragra was the most constructive and industrious. He had "rooms" in his big rock that he could individually seal off. My advice would be to give your chiragra a huge rock to drill into. You just bought yourself possibly the most ferocious mantis widely available. Mine was a coward (even chiragras have individuality) but I witnessed him blowing a hole clean through base rock so I always knew he would kill anything if threatened. This is one mantis you that don't want to put your finger in it's burrow. They are rewarding, you just have to give them a chance. The reclusiveness never completely went away with mine but he got better after about a year. Relatively. I'm still glad I ended up with my chiragra as my first stomatopod. He really kicked ***.

[ritter6788]

I was in the same situation as you. I ordered a scyllarus and got a chiragra. I was happy with mine. I traded it to another reefer because I "had" to have a peacock. I didn't want to keep 2 extra tanks running but now that I'm more into them I wish I would have kept it. I would suggest keeping rock work open and to a minimum and I think you will enjoy the mantis. Mine was about 2" as was really aggressive. It took very well to feeding and my wife used to "play" with it with a bare feeding stick and it would come out and attack it. Mine would actually come out when I tried to get close to the tank. It would pop the glass if you tried to take pictures or stare too long at it. Just my short experience with one though, I had it for about 3 months. I'm sure they get lazier as they get older. He's still alive and well in a local guys tank.

[Gonodactylus]

G. chiragra cost about $5-8 each in the wholesale trade. O. scyllarus sell for 4 to 8 times that much. It isn't surprising that G. chiragra are sometimes sold as O. scyllarus - not always deliberately. Let's say wishfully!

Roy

[Peter T]

Hello Rachel,

I have had a 3.5"-4" chiragra for about one week now. I got it in almost the same circumstances as you did, only mine was at a LFS. Knew it wasn't a peacock, but I've been looking for one for a long time so I picked him up anyways.

I know that a week is not a long time to gauge, but mine is pretty active early mornings when I turn the lights on. He will come out of his burrow, explore, move around and stare at me until about 1600 or so. Then he will head back and partially block his burrow so he can still look around. He doesn't shy away when I put my hand to the glass. He just stops moving around and stares at the hand. The only time I've seen him aggressive is when he seals his burrow and my damsel tries to dig him out or bury him in further. Silly fish! I've seen him get mad and come out to pop the damsel a few times lol! He may become reclusive as he gets older but I assume he is pretty old already because he is at max size. Here is a pic of him exploring the tank.

I hope yours is active and out in the open; their behaviors and mannerisms are very entertaining!

[rachel060186]

Thank you so much guys for posting. I loved reading your comments and experiences with the Chiragra and would love to hear more if anyone want to chip in??

Day two of having Bruno and today I haven't seen him. He was out for ages yesterday grabbing rocks and shells and dragging them into his dungeon.

When I set the tank up I put PVC tubing running the hole length of the tank with three openings, he seems to absolutely love this and was yesterday going in and out of all the entrances.

I spent ages yesterday listening out to see if I could hear clicks.. I thought I did a couple of times but wasn't sure. . . WELL TODAY I'M SURE, there is no need to listen hard, the little dude must be constructing something impressive in those caves because he is doing some serious bashing.

He is only about 1 1/2 inches at the moment although Roy said he must be at least 3 years old... I really hope he continues to grow.

I have had the Emerald crab in the tank for a couple of months and thought yesterday might be her final day, but she's still alive and the Mantis doesn't seem too bothered with her (he's had a couple of looks but I don't think he's tried anything)

I went to my LFS and bought a turbo snail and a small hermit so I will see if he takes on (or both) of them.

Would anyone recommend that I put some frozen food infront of his hole to see if he eats it? Or is it safe enough to presume he'll take one of the inhabitants if he's hungry?

Couple of pics then,

[Gonodactylus]

Don't over feed! If you want him to remain active, stick with live food and don't offer it to him, let him find it on his own.

Roy

[rachel060186]

Will do then Roy, I reckon he's got enough choice in there now. I'd love to see him take on the Emerald Crab, it's not far off the same size as him though, so I wonder if he'll be brave enough. xx

[rachel060186]

ps, Peter T... I reckon if I was a Mantis I would fancy yours.. he is HOT! ;-)

[Koshmar]

The day before I sold all my tanks I decided to feed my chiragra an emerald crab since I had never seen him go at one before... I don't think you'll miss anything if it goes the same way mine did. I put the crab in front of the burrow, I saw a blur, next thing you know the crab has one less claw. My chiragra comes out, I hear a pop sound and the mantis has the crab and drags it in the burrow. I look down in the sand to see the second claw and a leg laying there. It all happened in about three seconds... Definately not like "Mantis shrimps in Action". That's how most of live feedings went for me. I gave my rugosa 12 ghost shrimp and only got to see blurs of the shrimp disappearing by the burrow. You have to see it in real life to really get a feel for the speed that these things move at. Video usually doesn't do them justice.

[rachel060186]

I've had Bruno for almost a week now. He is very shy, only sticking his head out the hole at best. The Hermit and Emerald crabs have wondered pretty close to his den a few times. Once or twice he's approached them but then quickly retreated back into his dungeon. I'm trying not to be concerned having read that it's quite normal for them not to feed for a week or so after getting it, but I really wish he would. Not going to try and feed frozen as I'm hoping he'll come out and hunt for his dinner. Fingers crossed he starts eating soon.

[Koshmar]

He will, just give him time. I actually tried giving my chiragra an emerald before the last one and the emerald scared him away! Then he came back and tapped it, the crab molted and died, so I never got to see a mantis capture a crab first hand until that last day. So you see they do become much bolder. They won't starve themselves to death that I know of. Wait until the first molt, you'll really be freaking out! I can't remember is this your first mantis?

[rachel060186]

Yeah this is my first. I had a couple of little tiny hitchhiker Mantis' but I gave one to my LFS and the other lives in my frag tank (not seen him since) they were both tiny, so this is definitely my first proper mantis.

I just can't believe he has ignored everything in the tank. Two of the hermits were sat right outside his hole for absolutely ages and he hardly showed any notice to them.

What will happen during his molt? Will I just not see him for ages and ages? Will he eat loads before the molt?

x

[rachel060186]

:-( haven't seen nor heard him from him in two days. Hermits and Emerald remain intact!!

Wishing I'd never made such a massive dungeon for him now. There is a PVC tube that runs the whole length of the tank underneath all the sand and so there is no way for me to check whether he's ok without dismantling everything!! I am obviously not going to start disturbing him.. I hope I'm just being paranoid!

Wondering if he could be molting or whether he's just really unsociable or niggled about something!

[Koshmar]

XD
This is what I meant by the first molt. You'll be worried to death, does'nt help that chiragras spend 2-3 weeks holed-up during a molt. I think I recall Roy saying that it's best to have wide open spaces and allow them to hunt for food if you want to see your chiragra. Yeah that PVC pipe, when you see him (he's not molting) take that thing out. Don't worry, I was freaking out too during my first molting experience, it's normal everything will be ok.

[ritter6788]

To me that's one of the hard things about keeping stomatopods. They are reclusive by nature. I know you want him to hunt on his own but a little shrimp on a stick every now and then should get it out so at least you know it's alive. I have snails and hermits in with my big peacock and he doesn't eat those often either. Give him more time and don't get impatient and do any drastic like tearing the rocks apart. I agree I would remove the pvc pipe if you can without too much damage and you will see him be more active, he will have to build a burrow, it's one one my favorite things to watch.

[Moort82]

I'm about to join you and am really excited. I'm a complete newbie and possibly have a Chiragra waiting for me (as yet a confirmed id is awaiting more pics). Built a pvc pipe today so i guess that was a waste of time lol.
Do any of you run a half pipe along the front of the tank? so if it does use it you can at least see it, or is it better without.

Hope he appears with a nice shiny new coat soon.

[Peter T]

He will come along. Personally I believe the better the hiding spots you provide them, the more they will come out as they will feel more secure and be less stressed. But at the same time I don't use PVC in my tank, I just provided a few good pieces of dome/pyramid shaped LR and let the chiragra choose which one he wanted to dig into.

As others have said, I wouldn't worry about him not eating. I've seen my chiragra evict hermits as they try to enter his burrow when he is not hungry. All in all, he seems to eat one or two small (2 cm) hermits or snails about once every two to three days. If you have a supply you can try to feed him fiddlers or spider crabs. Those seem to be my mantis's favorite food. I just wouldn't feed it those food items too much; imo they make more of a mess and degrade water quality quicker than hermits and snails.

[rachel060186]

If he is going through a molt then hopefully I'll see more of him if he gets through it safely. I may consider taking that pvc.
IT will be a bit worrying if he is molting just days after receiving him, poor guy must be really stressed out!!

Thanks all for your comments. XX

[Koshmar]

It's normal for a mantis shrimp to molt soon after being introduced into a new tank.

[rachel060186]

ooooooh, I definitely didn't know that!!! That might explain his prolonged absence.. (yes I still haven't seen him)

Really wishing I did a water change before he arrived, but I didn't know he was coming until the very VERY last minute so didnt have chance.

Come on Bruno, stop being such an unsociable git!!!

[rachel060186]

It will be a week tomorrow since I've had any clue that he's still alive!! It's so difficult to resist the temptation to go hunting for him!!

[Koshmar]

Don't until about three weeks since you last saw him.

[rachel060186]

Whoopie, I think he may be alive!!

The rockwork door he made to seal his entrance has changed the last two mornings! It stayed exactly the same for over a week but definitely can see changes now.

IS it normal for them to come out at night and stayed hiding during the day?

[Koshmar]

No, they usually close up shop at night.