sexing up a mantis shrimp

Sorry about provactive title, haha. Acctually I was wondering if anyone had a way of identifying the sex on mantis shimp? I've had one for about three weeks now and I have given a name to him, BECK. The reason i'm asking is when I was browsing around on a few mantis shrimp threads I got to looking at other peoples shrimps and they appear to be much more colorful than mine. I know Beck is a peacock due to the tail coloration but it seems to lack much of the color and diversity i've seen on the others. Im wondering if beck is acctually a she, because most of the time in nature you find the males to be much more colorful than females due to interspecific breeding competition. Not that any of this matters, im not trying to breed them but I would like to know.

 

Female O.s. would be a duller color but sometimes color can be deceiving. Schackmel had a very bright female named "Bob". ;D When she laid eggs, we pretty much decided he was a she. A female would have gonopores between the first pair of walking legs. http://www.blueboard.com/mantis/pics/full/caldwell_odontodactylus_mating4_femaleslot.jpg

 

hey, when you get the chance look underneath your mantis, right behind the last pair of walking legs, if a male it will have two stick like things coming together like a v if a female their will be no stick things just two little holes like eyes, this will be the only way to tell for sure, as i have seen males and females the same color, but usually large males will have a emerald green back

 

Hey thanks for the replies, Beck is a little shy sometimes about coming completely out of the den but he? is getting better about it now. If I can manage to take a peek, I can be sure about him or her

 

As Beck gets braver, he/she will probably run around near or on the glass. Especially since he/she's a Peacock, they normally have little to know problems with shyness once they're comfortable. When they're backed up against the glass, or running along the glass where you can see underneath is the best view to check.

 

Yep yep. Looking between the legs is the only way to be certain.

If you have a good video camera you can try the trick I used to sex my mantis while he was shy. I set up the camera and pointed it at his den, I then put some krill on a feeding stick and positioned it so he would have to go in front of the camera to get the krill. With any luck you will get a view of the underside and can watch it frame by frame to see.