*Crack* *Crack* *Crack* - A Mantis Shrimp Nano

[Jordan N.]

Yeah..... From my main build thread.


Lets be careful about talking up my patience too much just yet --It's a lot easier to say I won't easier to be patenient now than it is on month 4 or 5 without adding anything. And then at least a year for the sand bed to mature before adding the sea grass.

All i'm saying is don't be surprised if i'm starting a nano in a few months.

So I didn't quite make it to the "few months" mark before starting a new tank --I didn't even make it a week.

This is going to be a low budget tank, mainly built out of spare parts I had lying around the house.

The tank is going to be a standard 10 gallon aquarium with about a 2 inch deep sand bed capped with live rock rubble. (For the mantis to construct it's burrow with.)

LIghting is going to be a minimal as possible --Has anyone here tried to grow macro algae with just two compact fluorescents?

The aquascape as a whole is going to be pretty minimal, I'm probably going to have a total of two or three small-ish pieces of liverock and a few different strains of macro algae for nutrient up take and thats it.

Since nitrates aren't really an issue for the tank the primary filtration will be from a Marine land canister filter. As long as I stay below 50ppm nitrate it should be fine.

http://img63.imageshack.us/img63/97/dsc0180m.jpg

I'm going to try to get one of these three mantis shrimp, unfortantly finding a specific mantis other than N. wennerae or a Peacock can be fairly difficult.

My number 1 choice is Odontodactylus havanensis. This one's a smasher.

http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/8151/ohavanensis1.jpg

http://img715.imageshack.us/img715/5444/ohavanensis3.jpg
[All of these pictures were taken by Dr. Roy Caldwell]

Choice Number 2 is Pseudosquilla ciliata. This one is a spearer.

http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/6774/pciliata3.jpg

http://img200.imageshack.us/img200/127/pciliata2.jpg

Choice number 3 is Neogonodactylus wennerae

http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/3015/nwennerae2.jpg

http://img715.imageshack.us/img715/2121/nwennerae1.jpg

[Europhyllia]

How ironic you are driving around in a car with a bumper sticker that is about peace while shopping for smashers and spearers... :D

[Third Coast Tropical]

You can get them at the coast. Some pretty big, and really cool looking. Don't recall the genus species, but they are there. Go to a bait stand and ask if they have any mixed in with their live shrimp. They will probably let you have one for free. Most of those guys call them sea lice.

[ballardjr2000]

For growing macro with CF's I grow macro in my sump/fuge with a energy saver CF from Lowes works find for the macro so I am sure you will be good to go with compacts.

[BIGBIRD123]

Glad you are going with the smasher....glass tank/spearer bad news, especially the thin-glass standard 10g.

[hobogato]

i think you may have that backwards :)


Glad you are going with the smasher....glass tank/spearer bad news, especially the thin-glass standard 10g.

[corruption]

Based on his research, the main smashers that are a risk to glass are the Peacock -- I said the same thing when he first mentioned the idea, and he pointed out the diminutive size of the sp. he's looking for.. I think he was planning on acrylic lining the floor of the tank as well :)

-Justin

[hobogato]

don-in-sa had a large peacock mantis for a long time in a 58 gallon glass tank. he also lined the bottom with acrylic on the inside since the main threat is them breaking the bottom while they are tunneling.

[corruption]

I believe the peacock was just too large for his plans -- he'd like to keep it within a small scale range..

Hey Jordan -- thats not going to use up your only spare 10 gal tank, is it? I think I only have one, for the other project... :)

-Justin

[profntbtr]

i may have a spare 10 lying around.

[corruption]

We may have to call it up for spare use, if Jordan doesn't have another...

-Justin

[txg8gxp]

Very cool. Keep us posted on your final setup please.

[ErikH]

The last one is wicked. I always vote for wicked. :) Look at those eyes, I don't think I will be able to sleep tonight.

[txmaverickmh]

Jordan,

I visited several fish stores in Houston this past week that have all those varieties of Mantis Shrimp...I know that Fish Gallery has 2 different mantis shrimp and City Pets had several as well. If you want, I can transport one back for you to Corpus Christi and then we can setup a meeting spot.

I also think that most fish stores can order them because I know that I have seen them on the order lists for GC Reef....they are not very expensive, max $50, but I am sure GC reef could do somewhere in the $20-$30 range for whatever you want.

I almost did a mantis shrimp tank instead of my seahorse tank, but from my research I heard that you hardly ever see them, and then when I showed my wife the really cool, gory videos on youtube, she gave the immediate executive veto and then we got seahorses! LOL

Good luck, I think it will be a very cool build, just make a deep sand bead with minimal LR for them to hide around, so you can see some action.

Michael

[Jordan N.]

Wow, this thread exploded while I was at work.


You can get them at the coast. Some pretty big, and really cool looking. Don't recall the genus species, but they are there. Go to a bait stand and ask if they have any mixed in with their live shrimp. They will probably let you have one for free. Most of those guys call them sea lice.

If I'm down there I'll look into it -Do you remember if they were smashers? To be honest though, I'm pretty set on what species I want, some are significantly more active during the day than others.


For growing macro with CF's I grow macro in my sump/fuge with a energy saver CF from Lowes works find for the macro so I am sure you will be good to go with compacts.

Glad to hear this is worked out for someone --I figured it would be sufficient.


Glad you are going with the smasher....glass tank/spearer bad news, especially the thin-glass standard 10g.


i think you may have that backwards :)

Haha, yes that is absolutely backwords. If a Spearer broke a tank it would really be one for the record books. :rofl:


Based on his research, the main smashers that are a risk to glass are the Peacock -- I said the same thing when he first mentioned the idea, and he pointed out the diminutive size of the sp. he's looking for.. I think he was planning on acrylic lining the floor of the tank as well :)

-Justin

The power of a Stomatopods strike increases (Exponentially) with the size of the animal. Unless your mantis is over 6 inches long it's very unlikely that they would break the glass. All of the mantis I'm looking at max out at around 3 inches or so. (Honestly even if they are that size it's pretty unlikely they will break the glass. The main concern is if they dig their burrow down to the glass and decide that they need to remove the obstacle and keep building. A large mantis repeatedly smashing thin glass can break it.)

-Jordan N.

[Jordan N.]

Very cool. Keep us posted on your final setup please.

I'll be sure to keep this thread up to date.


Jordan,

I visited several fish stores in Houston this past week that have all those varieties of Mantis Shrimp...I know that Fish Gallery has 2 different mantis shrimp and City Pets had several as well. If you want, I can transport one back for you to Corpus Christi and then we can setup a meeting spot.

I also think that most fish stores can order them because I know that I have seen them on the order lists for GC Reef....they are not very expensive, max $50, but I am sure GC reef could do somewhere in the $20-$30 range for whatever you want.

I almost did a mantis shrimp tank instead of my seahorse tank, but from my research I heard that you hardly ever see them, and then when I showed my wife the really cool, gory videos on youtube, she gave the immediate executive veto and then we got seahorses! LOL

Good luck, I think it will be a very cool build, just make a deep sand bead with minimal LR for them to hide around, so you can see some action.

Michael

Ooh, the wife veto. Seahorses were probably the right choice. :wink_smile:

I really appreciate the offer but I'll probably have to decline. I've been talking to the guy who runs Stomatopod.com and he's agreed to hold me the next O. havanensis he gets shipped in. (There main problem is getting the collectors to properly identify them!) I'm not a big fan of leading people on so I'll probably go through him.

DSB and minimal live rock is definitely the plan, I'm also going to spread around a lot of shells and other rubble. O. havanensis builds long tunnels in the sand --It will probably start it's burrow under the liverock and then it will use rubble and shells to extend the burrow a little bit each day.

-Jordan N.

[Big_Pun]

i have a hitch hicker mantis you can have its small now, all black with white spots, in my pico sister hand feeds it and wont let me dispose of it, shoot me a pm if intrested

[samurhai]

I'm excited to hear about this! I have been looking forever for a smasher....

[Jordan N.]

i have a hitch hicker mantis you can have its small now, all black with white spots, in my pico sister hand feeds it and wont let me dispose of it, shoot me a pm if intrested

I appreciate the offer but I'm pretty set on a particular Genus.


I'm excited to hear about this! I have been looking forever for a smasher....

Do you have a particular mantis you're looking for? If so let me know which one, I've looked at most of the sites selling them so I might be able to point you in the right direction. If not I think Stangchris might have one.....

[carong]

I have a peacock in my 100 but I don't feel safe cause it is glass. I think it is beter for you to get a clown mantis shrimp ( your first choice), that is a slasher if you have a glass aquarium. like Third Cost Tropical said If you have a chance go to the bait store at the cost sometime they have the mantis shrimp, I see them myself at the bait store before.

[samurhai]

One of the small guys. Probably the O. havanensis or the N. wennerae.

[kkiel02]

I have a peacock in my 100 but I don't feel safe cause it is glass. I think it is beter for you to get a clown mantis shrimp ( your first choice), that is a slasher if you have a glass aquarium. like Third Cost Tropical said If you have a chance go to the bait store at the cost sometime they have the mantis shrimp, I see them myself at the bait store before.

A couple years back they threw one in with the live shrimp we bought looking back Im lucky as I used it as bait. It could have been a different story if it got ahold of me. It was all brown though.

[Jordan N.]

You can get them at the coast. Some pretty big, and really cool looking. Don't recall the genus species, but they are there. Go to a bait stand and ask if they have any mixed in with their live shrimp. They will probably let you have one for free. Most of those guys call them sea lice.

Been doing some research and i'm pretty sure I've figured out what mantis this is; Squilla empusa. It lives in deep burrows in the mud and gets picked by ships trawling for shrimp.

Unfortantly it's not particularly suited for aquarium life --it's nocturnal and requires a sand bed deeper than it is long.

http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/arthropoda/crustacea/malacostraca/eumalacostraca/royslist/species.php?name=s_empusa

[Jordan N.]

Hello Maast!

AS tends to happen to me the plans for this tank have spiraled out of control. Last week I picked up a 30 gallon oceanic cube off of falcondob. With the added space I've made bigger plans --This is now a Texas coast biotope tank.

http://www.maast.org/forums/showthread.php?t=57280

I'm going to be basing it off of the jetty's in port aransas. I'm going to go out and collect granite so i can build a 'jetty' wall up the beack of my tank. Probably going to also get some ulva macro algae and various rock anemones that occur along our coast. If anyone has information on thier care I would love to hear it.

I'm also fishing for book recomendations --Really anything that will help me get a handle on how the overall texas marine ecosystem works.

-Jordan N.

[Europhyllia]

very cool!