ID please - mantis?

saltn00b

Active Member
It is possible that i have found the reason why i cannot keep shrimp or emeralds any more, and possibly why a 4 year old healthy GSM clown disappeared recently as well.
looking in my tank last night i saw a molt. first molt i have seen in over a year. This was especially surprising to me because i have not had any invertebrate in the tank for about that time frame as well. (exceptions being a black brittle star , a serpent star, and a handful of snails.)
i also cannot tell what the molt came from. From the partial molt, It appears to be a shrimp of some kind, possibly wasp-like in form, with several swimmerette-like appendages, each containing hairs.
this is why i am thinking mantis, but i cannot see the tell-tale mantis arms in my discovery.
I never hear any clicking.
i took some video with my new camera (still yet to take new tank pics though), and frankly quite amazed that photobucket let me host a 250mb video lol. here are two, let me know if you can make anything out!

 
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saxman

Guest
not enuff there to even hazard a guess...stomatopods aren't hairy tho, so i'd say it's not a mantis.
 

cranberry

Active Member
Ya, that definitely looks like a mantis possibility. You probably wouldn't hear it smashing because to me it looks like a spearer if anything.
1st video... 24 seconds in and pause.
 

spanko

Active Member
This is without a doubt the first time I think we would be better off with a description and no picture to identify something.
To my old, untrained eye (one eye is blind from an accident) looks like a somewhat decomposing blob of molt!!
 

cranberry

Active Member
If you play the video and stop it all the time... there are places where the molt straightens itself out.
And mantis DO have hairs.... on their antennal scales and their swimmerettes and uropods.
This is also a nice young molt and evendently at least a few hours old now. Some larger firmer structures can also go flimsy and take on the fine appearance of hair.
 
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saxman

Guest
i think we're all seeing different things...it's actually hard to tell what goes where. i'm seeing leg hairs (no, i'm not looking at MY legs!), which seem out of place.
 

florida joe

Well-Known Member
Originally Posted by Cranberry
http:///forum/post/3270644
Ya, that definitely looks like a mantis possibility
. You probably wouldn't hear it smashing because to me it looks like a spearer if anything.
1st video... 24 seconds in and pause.
Plus 1 do you still have the molt if so can you place it on a dark piece of paper and take a pic
 

saltn00b

Active Member
thanks for the guesses / insight.
i kept the molt but it disintegrated when i last went to look at it and take better pics.
what is an example of a spearer species name / picture?
 

florida joe

Well-Known Member
Originally Posted by saltn00b
http:///forum/post/3271411
thanks for the guesses / insight.
i kept the molt but it disintegrated when i last went to look at it and take better pics.
what is an example of a spearer species name / picture?
research Pseudosquilla ciliate(spearer)
 
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