surfn's 10g mantis lair....

[surfn]

Well, I ended up aquiring ANOTHER mantis shrimp this past weekend.

I really like this guy, but he is a good bit larger (3-4") than my other mantis (~1.5"). So that meant getting a bigger tank.

Plus, I was getting annoyed with the minibow tank anyways, due to the curved glass front, and small canopy. Just made it hard to work on the tank.

Here is the previous mantis tank thread:
http://www.club-zoa.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4169

This little mantis is going to go live in the fuge of my main tank now. He rarely ever comes out, thus the reason why I never updated the thread.

I'm contemplating putting both mantis shrimps in the same 10g tank, since the little one never comes of his rock. But I'll have to think long and hard about it.

Anyways, here is the new 10g mantis tank, home to a nice blue mantis shrimp, Gonodactylaceus ternatensis

This guy is much more outgoing, and has been all over the place exploring and checking things out. He's still a bit timid, when he sees me in the room. But I hope to update his progress and victories over other large inverts.

He was *rescued* from a LFS, he was living in a 1g pico tank on the counter for 1-2yrs. I'm sure he's relieved to be in a bigger home now.

 

[surfn]

oh yeah, so far, he has 4 roomates....a clown fish, and a zebra hermit, and 2 rock boring urchins, both about the size of a ping pong ball.

he hasn't show any agression to any of them, although i think he smacked the hermits shell when he got too close.


i also got a HUGE nasty crab at the LFS, that was caught in a person's tank. its definitely an ugly bad crab, with big black claws.

i'm gonna throw him into the tank once the mantis gets settled in, and then video tape the insueing cage match.

 

[revhtree]

HAHA! I love the title of this thread.

You better get it on video!

 

[fishes2889]

Wow sweet specimen, i dont think ive seen a blue one like that before. nice!

 

[fishes2889]

You better get it on video!

One of him eating!!

 

[JGoslee]

He's got some awesome color to him.

 

[reef-lover]

That Shrimp Is Pimp-tight. Great Pics...

 

[Pufferpunk]

Nice! The way mine kills other crustaceons, I wouldn't chance the 2 of yours together.

 

[surfn]

thanks guys....i love this little guy. he's so interactive!

his tank is right by the kitchen table, so i usually pull a chair out and sit and sit and look into the tank.

half the time when i sit down to look in the tank, he darts out of a rock half way and "butches up". pretty funny. he perks his body up, and spreads his smashers out like he's saying "back off!".

anyways.....heres a new pic.


DEATH TO ALL THOSE WHO ENTER!!

 

[Pufferpunk]

Like this?

You wanna piece o me?

 

[surfn]

yeah sorta, although he spreads out his smashers more horizontal and away from his body, like he's flexing his muscles.

btw, nice peacock, is that yours?

 

[Kigs!]

DEATH TO ALL THOSE WHO ENTER!!

LOL :hammer:

 

[surfn]

well, Mr.Mantis is settling in nicely.

he comes out quite often to explore for building material. i placed a bunch of small pieces of rubble rock in the front of the tank, and he has been coming out to check over them to see which he can use for his home.

so i placed 7 pieces of rock rubble along the front of the glass.....so i'll keep an eye on them to see if any are missing in the next couple of days.

looks like he has set up shop on the very left had side, right behind a rock. no clue why he chose to live behind that particular rock.....but i outlined in green dots where most of his "spots" are behind the rock work.

here is a close up of his entrance on the very left hand side of the tank. you can see where he has used a couple pieces of rock rubble to construct a smaller entrance into his domain.

i think he did most of this yesterday and today, b/c the day before, one of the rock urchins decided to set up camp right smack in the middle of that cave entrance, and it really ticked off the mantis......i heard him smacking at the urchin all day long.....and there are lots of spines littered all over the sand bed now....lol

the urchin is fine, and decided to move out.....but its quite intelligent of the mantis to make the cave entrance smaller so no more urchins can get into that side of the cave.

 

[Pufferpunk]

btw, nice peacock, is that yours?

Yup, that's "Dozer". He's just like a lil bulldozer. I've seen him approach rocks that were way too big for him to lift & with a running leap, grab the rock, flip his whole body over it & in the same motion flip the rock in the air, having it land exactly where he wants it & with the same flip in the water, land inside his cave. What an acrobat!

 

[surfn]

Yup, that's "Dozer". He's just like a lil bulldozer. I've seen him approach rocks that were way too big for him to lift & with a running leap, grab the rock, flip his whole body over it & in the same motion flip the rock in the air, having it land exactly where he wants it & with the same flip in the water, land inside his cave. What an acrobat!

how big is he? and what size tank?

if i ever go back to school....in a hard core kinda way where i dont have the time or money to maintain a reef tank anymore......i'm pretty sure i will stick with a small tank with a big mantis like a peacock.

 

[Pufferpunk]

He's about 4" in a 15g tank. I'll have to take some new pics of his set up. here's an old one:

He dug himself a basement apartment.

 

[Kigs!]

Al, that's a very cool looking mantis man... never seen a blue one before. Check this link out, thought you might like it. It used to be my favorite thread when I kept a peacock.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=266915

 

[Pufferpunk]

I folllowed that thread for a while--kinda forgot about it, thanks! That guy's an excellent writer.

 

[Reef Goddess]

That mantis is cool, hope he does well for you. I've always wanted to keep one among the many other "species tank" creatures I want to keep. They had a big 4-5" zebra mantis (cream w/ black stripes) at an lfs the other day. I felt bad for the guy cause they had him in a little fish cubicle with nothing in it (sand/rock). Poor guy was going crazy. I don't know many people that would want to keep a mantis that big.
They are really smart. I had caught a green one out of my 180 last year and put it in an acrylic fish container that was hanging inside the 180. Dude broke out after a week. They liked to get into my overflow, because my snails go in there and then it was happy hunting for the mantis. ;p I guess thats the nice thing about going to a wholesaler, you don't feel the pain $$ of eaten snails as much as if I was buying retail. Same reason why my lion fish would get fed cleaner shrimp all the time. lol

Maybe one day when I have room for a whole zoo I'll keep a peacock. That'll be the same day that I'm keeping a ribbon eel. ;p

 

[surfn]

yeah, i really like that thread on tim the mantis. i still have a Smithii that is about the same size...and i NEVER see him. he's extreamely boring....lol


well, just as an update, mr. mantis decided to freak out on me on saturday.....NO CLUE what he was doing. but he dug up all the sand on the left hand side, by night time.....the left hand side of the rock work collapsed and i had enough of it.

so i re-distributed the sand, re-did the rock work, and now i'm gonna add some more rocks today.

he's behaved himself lately, and no more sand freak-outs. actually, i think he's mad at me b/c he's barely coming out since i smoothed the sand back out and put the rocks back up....lol